Adrian Forbes could take positives from a frustrating night in which his under-21s were defeated 2-0 by a physical Colchester side on Wednesday evening.
A young Town side, including several under-16s, competed well against their category 2 opponents but were defeated for the third time in a row in the Premier League Cup.
“We are disappointed we didn’t get a positive result but I can’t fault the boys’ character and I can’t fault their performance in the second half,” Mr. Forbes said.
“We conceded in the second half, but we took the game to them.” We had so many chances in the final third, balls going into the box, forcing the goalkeeper to make saves – it was a game of nearly moments.
“We nearly scored, we nearly played that extra pass, we nearly finished that extra touch, and from my perspective, there is still a lot to build on, a lot to work on, but it bodes well for the future, and I look forward to playing Chelsea at Kenilworth Road next month.”
“There are still nine points to play for and I’m quietly confident we can still make a bit of a fist of it in this competition.”
This is the first competitive season for a Luton Town under-21 team, so despite the setback, Forbes was content to keep things in perspective.
“You can always look at a game like that and little things we could have done differently to stop goals going in, but I’ve got to reflect on the game and look at the bigger picture,” he told reporters.
“As I’ve said before about this group, the team didn’t even exist two or three years ago, so the fact that we’re here in this competition, playing against Leeds, Chelsea, and Colchester, and then inviting those three teams back to Kenilworth Road over the next three months, I think we have to look at that and see the positives.”
“We have to look at the group and see James Shea playing for the team and getting minutes, Andros Townsend playing for the team and getting minutes, Gabe Osho playing for the team and getting minutes, so we have to look at the bigger picture.”
“We’ve got two Under-16s in the team today, competing against 23-year-old men, and I just think it bodes so well for the academy’s and the club’s future.” They weren’t just making things up in the group. They deserve to be here, and they competed against Colchester today, and I believe they were crucial to the outcome.
“Because we are a category 3 academy, we do not have the opportunity to play in a league.” We have to source our own fixtures for any games we play other than the Beds Senior Cup and the Premier League Cup, so we go through the season in effect playing the majority of our games as friendlies, whereas the likes of Colchester, Leeds, and Chelsea are playing league fixtures every week, points to play for every week, so that’s something we at Luton Town can’t give them at the moment.
“But I will make sure over the next few weeks I am going to prepare those boys in the best way possible to go and compete against Chelsea, at home, then compete against Leeds and compete against Colchester, because those three teams still haven’t seen the best of us yet.”
The Town’s next competitive match is against Chelsea on Tuesday, December 12th at Kenilworth Road.
