Under-21s need to get the balance right as they face Cambridge United

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Shannon Ruth's side looking to progress in the Jersey Mike's Trophy on Tuesday.

Luke Nicoli

2026-11-03T06:00+00:00

Shannon Ruth's under-21s take on League One opposition on Tuesday. 📷James Boardman

Albion under-21 head coach Shannon Ruth is looking for more defensive stability as his side head to Cambridge United tonight for their final Jersey Mike’s Trophy group game.

While the side have netted an impressive 12 goals in their last four games, they have also conceded ten in the process – including four in their previous Jersey Mike’s encounter at Gillingham.

“We’ve got to find the balance,” said Ruth. “We can’t keep going with the mentality of outscoring the opponent.

“We’ve got some extremely talented young attacking players but for us to have a successful season like we did last year, and for some of those young players to get first-team experience, we have to make sure that they understand the game.

“They can defend, they can see games out and they’ve got defensive attributes that mean they can help whichever team they’re playing in.

“We’ve just got to keep chipping away at that to find the balance between attack and defence.

“But I don’t want to get away from the fact that we’re really excited with the attacking players that we have. Scoring and creating isn’t a problem for us right now. We’ve just got to find the balance.”

With Cambridge sitting at the top of Group G on six points and the Seagulls and Gillingham level on three points, it’s all to play for, with the top two going through to the next stage of the competition.

The Seagulls lost 1-0 at Cambridge in last season’s competition and Ruth is expecting another competitive encounter against the League One club.

“We’ve had a week’s hard work and we’ll go to Cambridge in a positive frame of mind,” he added. “Cambridge are a strong side and they’re having a good season. We went there last year and narrowly lost, so we’re expecting another tough game.”