Home draw for U18s in local derby - Head of Youth Tom Spall reports...

This game was a potential banana skin for us with Scunny bottom and our boys sitting on top. Having said that, it was always going to be a local derby and form goes out of the window for these games.

Our Centre of Excellence squads recently came up against Scunthorpe's youngsters and it was almost a white wash in our favour but we knew that this match would be a difficult one. Their gaffer Tony Daws did say at the time that they were playing too much football at the back so they were going to opt for a more direct tactic, which was clear to see when we came up against them.

With the contrasting styles of play we did find it difficult to get the ball down and play football, and they just lumped the ball up and play for set-pieces.

We started the game really well and Lenny John-Lewis should have scored for us but he blazed his shot over the bar. We totally dominated for the first 20 minutes and had at five corners. Against the run of play they got a free-kick outside the box and suddenly we're 1-0 down.

After the goal we didn't get our heads down and kept dominating the half, and I think in the first 45 minutes they only had two real chances. We had a handful of good chances ourselves though and finally got the equaliser from Adam Hewitt from a set-piece.

It finished 1-1 and although we were disappointed to have dropped two points we were pleased not to have lost, and we kept that unbeaten run going.

Overall the kids are doing very well and in particular the likes of Danny Hone and Martin Pembleton are exceptionally well. Although they have a lot to learn, they did very well for the reserves against Scunthorpe and when they've trained with the first team it's difficult to separate them from the pros. So all in all we are very pleased with the way that they are all progressing.

City U18's: Baxter, Bond, Hewitt, Welburn, Hone, McGovern, Bull, Pembleton, John-Lewis, King, Roberts