Under-21s head to Maidenhead in National League Cup

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Bruce Talbot

2024-12-04T06:00+00:00

Shannon Ruth will make changes for Saturday's game against Burnley. 📷 by Paul Hazlewood.

Shannon Ruth says his under-21s enjoy the different challenge of playing in the National League Cup.

Albion have picked up five points from their two games so far – a penalty shoot-out victory over Woking after a 2-2 draw and a 3-2 win against Aldershot – and head to Maidenhead United on Wednesday (7.30pm) to play the other unbeaten team in Group A.

Head coach Ruth said, “Everyone in football knows what a tough league the National League is. It's shown our players that it's competitive and there are lots of really good players playing at that level.

“The two games so far have been a good learning curve for us. The Woking game shouldn’t have finished 2-2, we played really well but switched off for five minutes at the end.

“Against Aldershot we went down to ten men early on so it shows where the group is at in terms of their personality that we came back to win. What these games do is show that your football philosophy is nothing unless it's underpinned by real personality and character.

“Our players are having to really step up and show their character and personality because they're playing against men. We’ve really enjoyed the competition so far and I’m expecting a similar game against Maidenhead – one that might take a bit of time to settle.

“We’re going to have to work really hard to keep the game in a manner that allows us to try and have some control, but that won’t be easy. Maidenhead won’t let us do what we want to so we have to be ready to bring all parts of our game.”

Albion have won eight and drawn one of their last ten in all competitions – the draw coming on Sunday when Freddie Simmonds scored a stoppage-time equaliser against Arsenal in PL2. “It was a really good advert for PL2 football with two teams playing at a really high level. I thought the draw was the least we deserved," added Ruth.