Coventry under 18s look ahead too Christmas period after mixed start too season.
Mark Delaney’s introduction in September has brought mixed fortunes, with a mix of injuries more senior under 18 players going to play for the under 21s. The young Sky Blues have had three wins three loses and a draw in the league since Delaney took the helm in September.
Image of Mark Delaney Credit: Eve Luckett
After their impressive win on penalties yesterday, at Deepdale against Preston, where the seniors are still yet to record a win, I might add. The young Sky blues are now in the next round of the Youth Fa Cup and look forward to a tough home fixture against local rivals Birmingham on the sixteenth manager Mark Delaney praised his sides “bravery” and “fight” as his young side had to endure penalties after a late Preston equalizer. Even Mark Robins, the senior manager, mentioned it in his most recent press conference “It’s a brilliant result no doubt, it sounds like a really good game, Aidan Dausch got a couple of goals and he’s been performing pretty well. Looks like an exciting talent, and that’s great because it gets people talking about them and get them feeling good about themselves.”
Now with the rest of the season and some big games ahead for his side, I spoke to manager Mark Delaney about his aims for his side at the tail end of 2023 and going into 2024 before the game at Deepdale, “ Yeah it’s been a good start for me as boss here, the lads are all great lads we have some real quality here and its my job to try and get the best out of them. Looking ahead, we have the first round of the youth cup that we really want to do well in, and we need to try and turn performances into results in the league, the next one at home for us is Birmingham so that will be an interesting one. If we continue in the same vein, we’ve been then I think we will be in good stead for the rest of the season.”
When asked about missing a few key players Mark said “Yeah, we will have to deal with it it’s not like they’re completely unavailable and even when they are the others have plenty of quality to deal with it.”
Mackenzie Stretton taking a corner Credit: Eve Luckett
Young left back Mackenzie Stretton has been performing well since his introduction into the under 18s last year, earning him a deserved call up to the 21s. “It’s been great playing with the older players, and I have really just been trying to learn off them, for the rest of the season, well I am just hoping to try and help the under 18s and 21s finish as high as they can and continue to get minutes this season.”
Looking forward to the rest with sixteen games remaining and currently sitting fifth in the table, and into the hat for the next round of the FA Youth Cup, Mark Delaney and his young sky blues have a lot to fight for and will be hoping to push on after an uncertain start to the season.
