Bristol Rovers 0-2 Luton Town
Tuesday 1st September 2015Our U-18 side were knocked out of the Alliance Cup on Tuesday by a strong Luton Town side who play in the South East Youth Alliance League.
Goals after 56 and 82 minutes put paid to our chances of making progress in the competition and had it not been for goalkeeper Charlie Phillips, who made five excellent saves, the winning margin might have been greater.
"Luton came here having won four and drawn one of their opening five games," said Alan Walsh, "and they had scored 20 goals whilst conceding only four so we knew we would have to be at our best to beat them.
"However we felt that if we played the same way we had against Bournemouth, in our previous match, that we stood a chance of coming out on top.
"If I'm honest, I thought our lads lacked a little bit of self belief in this game and, once again, we lacked a little bit of quality against a very good side who were quite physical and very well organised.
"Their first goal came about after couple of our players lost their footing in the build up. It was unfortunate, but against better sides you can't afford to make any mistakes.
"The second goal came after they hit us on the break and was very similar to the one we scored against Bournemouth.
"Once again our work rate and effort couldn't be faulted, but it's no good working hard, closing down teams and winning possession if you give the ball away and have to start all over again. We did retain possession well at times, but not often enough and now we have to bounce back in our first away game, against Newport, on Saturday."
Rovers: Charlie Phillips, Sam Blake, Sam Iles (Tom Fry), Alfie Kilgour, Bradley Confrey, Connor Jones (Lewis Leigh-Gilchrist), Elliot Green, George Corp, Blake Davies, Lewis Ellington, Luke Russe (Dan Lammiman)
Substitutes: Ollie Mehew, Regan Sollars, Callum Bingham