A cold clear night at Landore saw Swansea's young side run out winners thanks to a brace from Kenji Gorre
A lovely night for football. Cold and crisp, tonight I made my first trip to see the U21 Development side at their Landore home, and I have to say it was a really good experience. The facilities look great, and it's a great way to spend a few hours on a weeknight.
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| The teamsheet from tonight |
The Swans fielded a side with some fairly familiar names, as well as some we haven't heard mentioned too often. New signing Matt Grimes was there, as was Kenji Gorre (who always seems to pop up on the scoresheet for the U21's), while some names I didn't readily recognise were Connor Roberts at right-back and Joseph Jones alongside him at centre-back. Good Welsh names those. Giancarlo Gallifuoco was alongside him - not quite so Gallic...
The game started and the first bit of action was James Loveridge almost being snapped in half by Rangers' left-back Olamide Shodipo. It really was a shocking challenge, and one which Loveridge felt, but the referee felt only a talking to was necessary. In a week where refereeing decisions have once again risen to the fore, I was amazed that - at a minimum - a yellow card wasn't given.
We didn't have too long to wait for the Swans to take the lead. Gorre latched on to a poor QPR pass in the 12th minute before going a fine run, which was matched by the quality of the finish. He tied the defence in knots running at speed with the ball, before hitting a right-footed finish which clipped the inside of the post on it's way into the net.
QPR were threatening from set pieces, but barring a few half chances from tidy through balls they struggled to create anything of note. Their equaliser came, predictably, from a second-half corner (they caused us no end of problems all night) and Cole Kpekawa nodded home. We've seen the first-team struggle to deal with big men at set pieces recently, though as it was my first time n attendance I'm in no position to say whether that's something that happens regularly to our development side.
This was the Swans' night though, and I think on the balance of play we were worth the victory. Picking up on a loose ball in midfield the Swans broke, and Grimes burst down the left. He crossed for Gorre, who'd switched to the right wing by this point, who had the simplest of finishes. Two goals for Gorre, who was replaced by Henry Jones late on, and a promising display from the former Man Utd trainee.
I thought Gorre looked a very gifted footballer, but on numerous occasions he would have benefited from taking a more simple option, and if he'd looked for the one-two more often after beating a first man he could have had even more than the two goals he managed. There's no doubting the technique, and purely basing it on that he can't be far off the first team, but a little bit more awareness in the open and he could be a really, really good prospect.
I was thinking about about mentioning a few other players but then I thought it would be much better to do a quick run-through of what I thought of the players, as a lot of readers won't have seen our youth side before, or read much about them.
GK - David Cornell
Solid. Did nothing wrong all night, though perhaps could have tried to dominate from corners a bit more. If Cornell is rated as our top youth 'keeper I'd prefer to see him now given games as opposed to Tremmel, and I saw nothing tonight to persuade me otherwise.
RB - Connor Roberts
Again, solid. Always offered an option in attack, and cool on the ball. He seemed a tidy footballer and made a couple of good tackles to boot. Kyle Naughton watch out...
LB - Stephen Kingsley
The first time I've seen Kingsley since his move from Scotland, he looked very good. Big and athletic but also very good on the ball, he made a couple of overlapping runs as well as winning his fair share of headers. Expect him to be challenging for the first-team before the end of the season.
CB - Joseph Jones
Didn't have a huge amount to do but found his man in defensive midfield with cushioned headers on a few occasions which is always encouraging.
CB - Giancarlo Gallifuoco
Looked slightly more assured than his centre-back partner (Gallifuoco is twenty-one, Jones eighteen), the ex-Spurs centre-back was solid and appeared comfortable on the ball.
CM - Matty Grimes
Baller. Composed, cool, and excellent in the build-up to Gorre's second goal. Showed a couple of really nice touches out on the touchline near the home fans, which went down very well. As with Kingsley, you could tell he's already played senior football.
CM - Josh Sheehan (C)
As with Grimes, very composed. Seemed to be operating beside him in a shared defensive-midfield role but with license to roam he spent his evening pinging five to twenty-yard passes to anyone who wanted it, and every time I see Sheehan I like him more.
AM - Adam King
King seemed to be having a fairly quiet night, and just as I made that remark he played a wonderful through ball for Samuel, splitting the QPR defence completely. Summed up his night - quiet for spells before something a bit special. Still only nineteen, King is known to be highly regarded and he showed a couple of really nice touches tonight, but as mentioned his vision was what impressed me.
FW - Kenji Gorre
Very lively. Got both the Swansea goals, but will have been frustrated not to have made more of other opportunities.
FW - James Loveridge
Almost snapped in half within a few minutes of kickoff, but recovered well. Definitely busier in the first-half as opposed to the second, he showed he had a really, really good first touch on more than one occasion.
FW - Alex Samuel
My favourite guy of the night. He's clearly watched a lot of Bony, and he scrapped for every ball all night. While he didn't have any real joy in front of goal he was brilliant everywhere else, and he managed to retain possession against the odds on many an occasion, allowing us to build from a solid base high up the field.
SUB - Henry Jones
Came on for Gorre late on, and didn't have too much time to make an impression. That said he showed a few nice touches, and I heard the Swansea coaching team shouting that "he's playing number ten" - which I liked.
All in all I had a great time tonight. I'll definitely be making more of an effort to get to development games in the future, and I can't recommend it enough. The team seem to be doing great work, and it's now 12 games unbeaten for the young Swans who went back to the top of their league with this victory.