day FiFteen

Today was to prove the biggest challenge of the Tour thus far.

The Blackburn Academy is a state of the art complex with an attention to detail that was

extraordinary. From Urine charts to body fat to weight ratio’s to heart monitors no stone is left

unturned to extract the very best from every lad within the Academy.

We were advised by the Man Utd coach that these boys would be big strong athletes that can play

and they were!!

The game commenced and from the first minute our backs were against the wall with Blackburn’s

slick, fast and strong passing game. We contained them for 10 minutes before the first goal was

scored and before we knew it we were 4-0 down at half time. The second half resumed and one of

our boys was heard to say “bloody heck are they coming out of the ground”!! The onslaught ended

with  our goalkeeper picking the ball out of the net for the thirteenth time and complaining of

‘Lumbago”.

Whilst a demoralising experience for all, our lads gained huge learning from this experience and now

have a greater appreciation of where the ‘benchmark’ is in Youth Football – STRENGTH, PACE,

AWARENESS, DEDICATION & TECHNICAL ABILITY will be the key takeaways and

something for those of our lads to work on if they have aspirations to go further.

The most important aspect from this experience was that our boys did not give up and continued to

work hard throughout the game – this was very pleasing as this attribute will help them in life’s

journey.

As a ‘pick me up’ the boys were given a boost and taken to watch Manchester Utd v Spurs in the

Carling Cup game at Old Trafford. They were in awe of the ‘Theatre of Dreams” filled with 58,000

fans. United won 2-0 and the day ended with the lads all smiling and preparing for another tough

game tomorrow against Man City.