Ruth: A strong team performance

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Bruce Talbot

2024-09-14T10:15+01:00

A 4-0 win was a good start to a busy week for Shannon Ruth's team. 📷 Simon Roe

Shannon Ruth praised a ‘really strong team performance’ by his under-21s at the start of a busy week.

Cam Peupion’s second-half hat-trick and a late goal by substitute Harry Howell earned Albion a 4-0 win over Reading on Friday in their opening game in the Premier League Cup.

With an EFL Trophy tie at Wycombe next Tuesday followed by a return to Premier League 2 action against Nottingham Forest three days later, Ruth knows he will need his whole squad so it was gratifying to see a team containing several under-18s perform so well against Reading.

“It was a pleasing night overall with four really good goals,” he said. “I was pleased with the way the players followed the game plan. We rotated a fair bit and gave an opportunity to players who haven’t had a lot of game time, so it was nice for them to impact the game and be part of a really strong team performance. We’ll build some confidence from that.

Cam Peupion attacks the Reading defence. 📷 Paul Hazlewood

“The players who came off the bench had an impact and built on the starters put in. Cam had a good hat-trick and could even have had a couple more goals perhaps and it was nice for Harry Howell to score, coming off the back of a really strong international camp with England U17s, when he scored two goals. Jamie Mullins goes under the radar a bit but I thought he was excellent too.”

“It was game one of three in seven days and we move onto Wycombe on Tuesday. We’ll need the full squad in a busy block of games and this was a good start to a busy period for us.”