The development squad fell to their first loss of 2022 on Tuesday afternoon as a much-changed under-23 outfit, which saw some members of the squad handed their first appearance of the season, were unable to adapt to the difficult conditions they faced at Hednesford Town’s Keys Park.
But with his side already qualified for the knockout stages of the competition, Collins admits it was the right time to give his squad players a runout, while resting those younger members of the under-23s who will feature in Saturday’s FA Youth Cup quarter-final against Brighton & Hove Albion at Molineux.
On learning from defeat
“I thought it was a real learning experience for us. It’s great that we got the game on, but the pitch was really difficult. That’s not an excuse, it is really difficult, so I knew it would be a challenge for us to adapt our playing style to the pitch because it wasn’t an Academy pith, a nice, lovely pitch where you can pass the ball and play your football.
“It was a pitch for territory, for second balls, and there was a bit of wind that we had to cope with. It was a real lower league, non-league scenario today, where our lads had to handle different parts to the game than they usually have to handle, and I felt early on we were a bit naïve.
“They have to learn in their careers to play in conditions like this and do better, adapt to it quicker and make better decisions. It’s great learning and it’s always disappointing to lose a game, but sometimes you learn more in the dark days than you do when you’re playing well, and we’ve been playing very well lately.
“I thought today was a real good lesson for us and hopefully they’ll get in their cars and they reflect and they learn from it.”
32' | #WOL 0-2 #EXE
— Wolves Academy (@WolvesAcademy) February 22, 2022
Searching for a way back into the game as we pass the half-hour mark.
📺 https://t.co/2L4eqJuCrq pic.twitter.com/cRg8GD64Of
On conditions affecting the game
“We didn’t hit enough balls in behind, to use the territory and spend a bit more time up the other end of the pitch, because there was a lot of wind blowing towards our goal which led to the first goal.
“The second goal came from us trying to play out from the back in conditions where you can’t play out from the back, so then you’re 2-0 down and you’re up against it.
“I thought there was a chance in the game in the second-half because we’ll have the wind and the territory, but Academy players find it very difficult to adapt their play, to dropping balls down the side or dropping balls in behind and picking up second balls, but what they have got to understand is that top players do and top players can.
“There’s examples of Kidderminster against West Ham earlier this year, Kidderminster gave it a right go, but in the end, West Ham found a way, on a difficult day to get back into it.
“But all credit to Exeter, they came here and did a good job, and although there’s positives we can take, what was disappointing for me was how long it took us to adapt to the conditions, and by the time we had, the game was already gone.”
On resting the Youth Cup players
“It was a bit of a dead rubber as we knew we’d qualified anyway and it gave us a chance to give a few of our boys a run out without affecting the Youth Cup group.
“We were trying to avoid using the Youth Cup group because they’re playing at the weekend and it’s a big game for them.
“We knew we’d qualified, so it was only right and fair to them and Steve [Davis, under-18 head coach] that we didn’t want one of them to come out here today and get injured, although we had to use Justin in the second-half because Yerson [Mosquera] could only do 45 minutes.”
46' | #WOL 0-2 #EXE
— Wolves Academy (@WolvesAcademy) February 22, 2022
Mosquera makes way for Hubner at the break and we're back underway for the second half.
📺 https://t.co/2L4eqJuCrq pic.twitter.com/O99QG2sYpW
On under-23 squad members featuring
“These boys train every day, Faz [Sangare], Dongda [He], Pascal [Estrada], Raf [Nya], they’re working hard every day, and maybe their careers are somewhere else in the future and their all on their different journeys.
“But they’re still working hard and trying to forge a career for themselves and I thought they deserved an opportunity to today, because with the younger group coming through behind, these opportunities are few and far between, so we felt today was the day for that.
“Unfortunately for them, it was on a difficult pitch in difficult weather, and I think they’d have preferred it if it was a bit nicer and they could have played their football and showed their quality a bit more.”
On facing Reading on Monday evening
“We’ll have a look at the under-18s, and I think two days after [the FA Youth Cup quarter-final] is doable, but we certainly don’t want to be ricking anybody injury-wise.
“That’s when the science comes in and maybe we’ll get one or two involved, but then it will probably be the majority of that group.
“Hopefully we’ll get better conditions and hopefully the pitch is better at Kidderminster, although it’s not perfect, it’s better and that might allow us to play a bit more of the football we like to play.”
