Wilkinson urges EDS to heed lessons of Bolton loss | OneFootball

Lead Coach Ben Wilkinson has urged his Elite Development youngsters to heed the learnings from a tough first 25 minutes in Tuesday’s EFL Trophy loss at Bolton.

Three goals inside the first half hour ultimately proved decisive as Bolton secured a 3-0 win at the Toughsheet Community Stadium in Group E.

Having taken a ninth minute lead through Sam Dalby, the hosts then doubled their advantage six minutes later through John McAtee before a deflected Aaron Morley strike on 23 minutes sealed the contest.

Despite those body blows, the City youngsters didn’t buckle and carved out a number of opportunities.

But ultimately that quick-fire start ensured Bolton made it two wins out of two in Group E to top the table with City lying second with one game remaining.

For Wilkinson it’s a lesson he hopes his young charges take on board looking to remainder of the season.

“Firstly, we're playing against a good team. You know, it's probably as strong a team as you'll see. I think in this competition,” Wilkinson pointed out.

“But it goes without saying that the first 20 minutes or so absolutely killed us. I think what's disappointing, really disappointing from our point of view is the nature of the goals.

“We have clear rules and responsibilities defensively [but] we made some really bad decisions in that first 20 minutes and made errors in that aspect of our game which, against a team like Bolton, means you will get punished.

“So, I think that's the disappointing thing. I think that that they haven't had to work hard to get into some commanding position in the game.

“That's the big disappointment from our point of view.

“After that, there were positives. Especially given that you know it's a difficult place to be to find yourselves 3-0 down after 20 odd minutes.

“And I thought, especially in the second half we played well, and we created a lot of opportunities and on another night we easily come away with one, two or three goals in the second-half.

“But if we want to go further in this competition and not just this competition in any game we play, we can't afford to play like we did in the first 20 minutes defensively.

“Hopefully they'll understand that that's something they can't happen again.”