Tonight's line up

And that last comment sums it up. You expected us to be soundly beaten at home by a Division 4 team. So did most other fans. We were.

 

Same as when we beat a team we really should be beating and most expected us to beat the happy clappers act like we've beat Man City.

 

Or maybe the ‘happy clappers’ are just glad we’ve won. Shame on them for that eh. I dare bet the number of posts on here after a defeat far outweigh the number when we win.

 

Not really, the Division 4 side as you put it, are higher up the Pyramid than an Academy side with a sprinkling of older fringe players. Also, they’ve played together all season.

 

If I understand it correctly we don’t put any money into it, it’s funded by the Crynes. Been like that for years

 

I find myself a bit torn with this, I hate the fact that Prem u21s are allowed as it’s supposed to be a competition for lower league clubs to get a day out at Wembley. Yet, it does provide a good opportunity for Academy lads to further their development in a different environment where winning absolutely matters ( to start with at least)

 

Mate. Doncaster beat Bradford 2-1 away on Saturday. Great result. McCann made 10 changes from that side!!

 

Yeah having the Prem youth teams in it, is another poor idea.
But if they are going to be involved, I wish they would at least drop these group stages, and make it a straight Fa cup style knockout competition (which it was when we won it!).
When we actually played our strongest first team in each game in those days, because we wanted to get to Wembley and win it!.

 

At the start yes, they finished with a strong team, my point is they had a strong squad tonight far more experienced players than we had and were the favourites from the off.

 

You don't speak for me.

 

This is what does my tree in. The extremes! He's probably been our best player this season, if not a close second.

 

I don’t mind using the competition as a chance to give fringe or young players game time. For me, it’s actually what makes the competition a bit different. It adds a bit of intrigue that wouldn’t otherwise be there.

However…… there is a way to go about it and in all 3 games, and especially last night, we’ve not given anyone the chance to look good because of the team that was picked.

When you chuck 11 players that haven’t played together into a side it will always look disjointed so players can never play to their full potential. Then last night we decided to play with only 1 recognised centre half which is both unfair on the players and asking for trouble.

I felt really sorry for some of the younger lads like Flavell, McCann and Bland. They would have looked a lot better if there were more established players alongside them.

 

Another chance for Jalo to impressed, another chance wasted he’s never gonna cut it

 

I think attitude shone through today. His talent appears to be crushed by his ego.

 

I hate these comments about scrapping the academy. It beggars belief that there are people from our town who support our football club that want to get shut of it.

You guys not got kids, grandkids, nephews, mates kids who could end up representing the club?

We should be proud of our academy.

Most aren’t superstars but there’s loads of ex-reds who came through the academy knocking about in the top 5 or 6 leagues.

Stones, Bree, Holgate, Clark, Digby, Rose, Butterfield, George Maris, George Smith, Rhys Oates, Scott Flinders.

There’s loads more who we took on at a later stage like Brown & Walton who have made a good career from starting with us too.

I’ve said plenty of times that I don’t think this current crop is anywhere near as good as some of the hype it gets but I’ll keep backing them & hoping that a few of them make it.

We should stop signing players in positions we’re already well stacked & stop signing players before they’ve proven their bodies can cope with the demands of a league season before we cut academy costs.

 

With respect, they're all years and years ago and the majority of them ended up well below the level we were competing at at the time, and most of them are nearing retirement.

It hasn't produced anyone who's contributed in a meaningful way to either the first team or the clubs finances for years.

There's an argument that says that should mean a coaching regime change rather than existential questions, but at the moment it just seems to be an expensive white elephant, at a time when the ownership are on public record lamenting the eye-watering losses they are presiding over and having to fund from their inheritances.

 

It’s certainly not done as well in recent times but Jacob Brown was still with us in Covid & whilst he wasn’t someone who was with us as a child he came through the academy system for a year or two before he ended up in the first team.

I’m hoping there’s a few I’ve missed too. A lot of the ones I’ve mentioned are ones I’ve seen a lot of from when I used to watch the youngsters play a fair bit. I rarely see an under 23’s game these days.

 

Brentford don’t have an academy and it’s not done them any harm.

 

They have over £100m in loans from the owner though.

 

Ok not sure what the point is we also have our owners putting in money to make up a shortfall season after season for no benefit.