Wolves Under-18 manager Darren Ryan was proud of his team’s performance in their loss to Manchester United on Tuesday, after his side were cruelly beaten by two goals in injury time.
The Wolves youngsters held their own against Manchester United for long periods of the game until two late goals sealed the result for the away side. Defender Dion Sanderson was also given a red card late on.
Despite the result, Darren Ryan says his young side can take positives from their performance.
“In my opinion, they’re the best team in the league, I think we showed how far we’ve come,” he said.
“To compete against them and match them for most of the game, I think we can take positives.
“It’s just disappointing to concede two goals in injury time.
“They’ve adapted really well, not just against United but against Everton last week.
"We had an under-16 starting a left-back and the goalkeeper is also under-16, we finished the game with three under-16's and an under-15 in the team.
"It's good for their development and I've been really pleased with the last two performances, against Everton and Manchester United, the top two teams in the league.
"The experience of playing against the best academies in the country is great for any player, but especially the younger ones.
"They're learning from these experiences and they're training with us every day now, looking forward to next season it will put us in a good position.
Despite Dion Sanderson receiving his marching orders late in the game, Ryan was happy with the defender’s performance and has backed the 18-year-old to learn from his mistake.
“It’s disappointing for Dion to react the way he did but he will learn from that.
“He’s a young player who was exceptional in the game and he will learn from that experience.
The Under-18’s take on Derby County on Saturday and Ryan is confident his side can get a positive result.
“I think the performances over the last two or three weeks, we’ve started cutting out the mistakes and have been more compact without the ball.
“Now we have to take those positive performances and turn them into positive results.
“The performances generally have been really good, I’ve been really pleased with them and how they’re developing.
“We now have to maintain the standard of our performances, starting with Derby on Saturday.”
