Martin Allen was full of praise for Barnet’s youngsters, following the Bees’ 3-0 victory over Crawley Town.
Speaking after the match, the Bees manager said:
“I thought that we started a little bit slowly in the first 20 minutes – it took us a bit of time to get going.
“But then after that I thought that we played very well in the latter stages of the first half.
“In the second half we played with much more urgency and more self belief.
“We kept possession much better today too.
“It was a performance that made me very proud, with so many young lads in our team.
“Ross Eames has been doing the work with those young boys for quite a long time, and it’s been extremely physically demanding.
“I promised them an opportunity and I promised them that they’d get the chance to play.
“If we’d won last week I was going to play more youngsters today.
“But what a performance from young Nana Kyei this afternoon.
“It’s a shame that Harry Taylor went off with a horrendous cut on the front of his foot.
“Then we saw Justin Nwogu come on to the left side – he did a great job.
“Wesley Fonguck went into central midfield as well, and Tom Day came on at right back – he’s a good player.
“All these lads are good players; if they all work hard and train hard then the future is bright.
“I thought it was tremendous at the end today, with the backing from all of the supporters – especially after that crazy last 20 minutes against Yeovil.
“There is a lovely atmosphere with our fans, and I saw a lot of them before the game.
“I hope that the Barnet supporters absolutely loved it today – coming here to see so many 17 and 18 year olds wearing Barnet shirts in the first team, playing the way that we did.
“I personally loved having them on the pitch and in the dressing room.
“They bring energy, they’re enthusiastic and they’re good players.
“You’ve got to remember that they won the Under 18’s league last year, and I promised them opportunities if they trained hard.
“They have done, and they’re going to get their rewards.
“Andy Yiadom has been playing with a sore ankle recently, so I sat him down on Thursday and said I was going to bring the other boys to Crawley – he could have the weekend off.
“That’s why he wasn’t here, and why Michael Gash took over the captaincy.
“I thought that I’d have the three youngsters on the bench – they were going to come on whatever the score today.
“Thankfully they responded fantastically and they’ve got very bright futures.
“Sometimes we sit back, park the bus, and use the long throws.
“But today was really the opposite of that because we tried to keep the ball and retain possession to win the game.
“That’s important, with these good, young technical players that we have at the club.”
