Ruth happy as under-21s pass physical test

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Albion beat Sheffield United 2-1 on Friday in the Premier League Cup.

Nick Szczepanik

2026-10-10T11:55+01:00

Shannon Ruth felt Albion under-21s deserved a bigger margin of victory. 📷Paul Hazlewood.

Men’s under-21 head coach Shannon Ruth was pleased with the way his team overcame the physical challenge posed by visitors Sheffield United in Friday’s 2-1 Premier League Cup win at Lancing.

But he thought that his side’s performance deserved a wider margin of victory.

Valentin Joseph gave Albion a first-half lead and Tyler Silsby netted the winner shortly after the Blades had levelled with one of their few efforts on target.

“I actually felt we played too well to be hanging on,” Ruth said. “I thought in the first half or for the first 60 minutes, we were outstanding.

“I thought the lads dealt with the opponent's strategy well. Because it felt like every time we got out, we got fouled. But the players showed courage to keep playing, to react well, to not get disturbed by that.

“I just felt we had to score more when we were on top. Otherwise, when you're hanging on and the opponent's going for it, they put your box under pressure. Although that was good for the players to experience, I felt we played too well to only be one goal ahead.”

Miah Oriola puts pressure on the Sheffield United defence during Friday's 2-1 win. 📷Paul Hazlewood

The team lined up with only three specialist defenders in Isaiah Alakiu, Callum Mackley and Tate Ferdinand and threatened to overrun the visitors in the early stages.

“The make-up of the team was extremely attacking. The mixture of Shane Nti, Kofi Shaw, Henry Kasvosve and Younis Ibrahim caused them a problem centrally. Then we had good width with Miah Oriola and Tyler Silsby,” added Ruth.

The success of the system depended on skipper Callum Mackley at the centre of the back three. “Cal has wonderful leadership qualities and he's our captain for a reason, because in the chaos, he stays calm. He senses danger really, really well. He had a huge part in why we could play in the way that we played.”

The three points put Albion in charge of their League Cup group with three games to play. Ruth said, “You want to try and make winning a habit because that's part of developing a young footballer and that winning mentality.

“But more importantly also, it hopefully gives us a bit of confidence going into Tuesday [away to Gillingham in the EFL Trophy] because the Trophy is obviously really important to us and we go into that game needing a win and we're through with a game to go.

“So Friday was a perfect game to prepare for Gillingham for lots of tactical reasons, for lots of physical reasons. We feel that will hopefully put us in a good place that we can reflect on and be ready for Tuesday.”