Professional Development Phase boss Richard Beale says his U21s are keen to produce a response to recent defeats when they face Wolverhampton Wanderers on Monday night (ko 7pm).
The young Baggies will play their Black Country counterparts at AFC Telford’s New Bucks Head Stadium, but after losing their last two matches against Reading and Derby County, the club’s young pros are targeting a return to winning ways in the best possible way.
Academy chief Beale is excited to see how his team will approach the derby and believes the decision-making of his attackers will be pivotal to claiming a scalp over their local rivals in Shropshire.
“The core skills and getting basics right in every single game is important," said Beale.
“They’re never a given with young players, who often show inconsistency, but we’re always working with them with - what we call the brilliant basics - to build consistency and become better as individuals.
“Mainly, it’a about individuals and those individuals chipping away at the areas they need to improve and they’ve got another opportunity to do that, in what will be a great game and absolutely it’ll be nice to play a derby game against Wolves.
“We need to show the same levels of commitment they boys have shown for large parts of this season.
“It wasn’t just what I saw with my eyes, despite defeat on Monday - the numbers back up that the boys showed great commitment in the last match. The effort and running was fantastic and I can’t ask any more of them on that front.
“What we can do more of is improve what we can do with the ball in the final third. We were a bit short on that, which was disappointing, but I know the lads will be keen to put that right against Wolves.
“We’ll keep working away at being as good as we can be and we’re looking forward to this game on Monday.”
