'Hurzeler trusts under-21s with his players'

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Our men's under-21s secured a terrific win over West Brom on Sunday.

Nick Szczepanik

2025-08-18T11:00+01:00

Stefanos Tzimas and Babis Koustoulas were introduced after an hour. 📷 by James Boardman.

Albion under-21s head coach Shannon Ruth believes that his team’s 4-0 victory over West Bromwich Albion in the opening match of the PL2 season showcased a number of aspects of his group's importance to the club’s player development pathway.

As usual, the game featured some of the club’s most promising academy products, including Harry Howell and Freddie Simmonds, and Shane Nti claiming the match ball after a well-taken hat-trick.

But the fixture also gave head coach Fabian Hurzeler, who watched the game, a chance to give competitive minutes to new signings Stefanos Tzimas and Charalampos Kostoulas, who each played 30 minutes off the bench and contributed to goals.

“I think it epitomises the model and the importance of our 21s group that the manager is very happy to put his players into our games,” Ruth said. “We try our hardest to drip in the principles that Fabian wants so that, hopefully, when the players come down, they're getting similar messages and it's good preparation for them.

A Shane Nti hat-trick helped Shannon Ruth's team on their way to a 4-0 win on Sunday. 📷 by James Boardman.

“Quite a lot over the years first-team players who are coming back from injury or need some minutes have asked to play and it just shows the level of professionals that we have in our first team that they're very happy to come and be part of the group. They're really good people and you saw from Stef [Tzimas] giving Shane the ball for the penalty what a good teammate he is and I'm sure that they've got bright futures for us.”

And then there was a fluid tactical formation that made use of the versatility of many of the young Albion players, who also showed that they could cope with a very robust Baggies team.

“We had a few hybrid players, if you like, so Callum Mackley can do full-back, he can do centre-back, he can do midfield. Charlie Tasker's more of a right-back but Sean Keogh's more of a wing-back, so it enabled us to build in a different way that would have caused West Brom problems.

Callum Mackley in action against the Baggies. 📷 by James Boardman.

"Harry Howell had a bit of a freer role today, Josh Robertson was sitting as a deeper midfielder but he can get forward, then you've got Zane Albarus who, against the ball, is incredible.”

Albarus was shown a yellow card for one of a number of challenges in a game that would have looked very physical to anybody who had not watched many PL2 matches.

“The biggest compliment someone could pay is that we don't look like an under-21 team,” Ruth said. “I think under-21 football gets a negative perception sometimes of not being senior football.

“Our job is to prepare the players and make sure that if it's a debut for our first team, if it's a loan, that, physically and competitively, they have enough bite and edge about them and that was really evident today.

“I thought the team were really together. There were some big moments of defending and there were some big duels where we came out with the ball. So I was super pleased with the team from that perspective.”