U21s Progress Pleases Beaglehole

Against Matlock it was powerful striker Jacob Blyth that opened the scoring with his third goal of pre-season, while trialist Ryan Meadows, striker Simonas Stanevicius and wide man Joe Dodoo completed the rout. 

Afterwards, Beaglehole was delighted to have come away with another win and clean sheet, despite key members of the squad missing through injury. 

He said: “Sometimes you can get a bit greedy, because those stats are excellent by any standards, but you’re always looking for a bit more and we are disjointed at the moment with three left backs out. 

“We’re missing Callum Elder, Louis Rowley and Ben Chilwell, who we think a lot about. Then we have Alie Sesay who went off with a nasty cut, and we had midfield players playing at the back. 

“You’d think then that we would be good going forward, which we have been, and that we might leak goals, but we haven’t. We rode our luck a little bit but the attitude of the players has been fantastic. They love winning games, they were used to that last season and they’ve carried that on. 

“There were a lot of good performances and Jacob Blyth looks like he’s always going to score, which he has done again. 

“The team is getting better with every game and I saw signs that we’re improving and moving in the right direction. I thought Kirean Kennedy was a rock at the back, he won all the headers and with Alie Sesay alongside him that’ll be a very good partnership.” 

Next up for the Development Squad is a tough test against Scunthorpe United’s first team up at Glanford Park, and Beaglehole knows it will be a considerable step up in terms of opposition. 

He added: “Saturday is going to be a very big test for us away to Scunthorpe on their main ground, which is a complement to the lads that their manager wanted to play us. 

“They’ve got good players, so we’ve that to look forward to and we’ll certainly see on Saturday just how far we have come. Without wishing to disrespect the opposition that we’ve had so far, Scunthorpe will be at a different level on Saturday.”

Read the full Matlock Town report .