Manager Phil Priestley looks back at the start his U19 side have made to the 2019/20 season.
It's been a great start to this season, our numbers have increased from 20-25 last season to near 40 this year which means great competition in both the Alliance and College sides.We started the season against Scarborough, who are new to our league this year so we weren't sure what to expect. Their coach Denny Ingram used to play for Harrogate so I know him quite well, I used to play with him at Scarborough. To win 7-1 was a great result and the lads played really well.
Our second opponents Pontefract are also new to our division. They've got a good side and hopefully we'll be up there with them come the end of the season. It was a 5-0 defeat but if we had played football on the day and taken our chances, then maybe we could've got a couple goals back to get into the game but we tired towards the end, just beaten by a better side.
We played Warrington in the cup who are top of their league and were undefeated coming to us. We pulled it back to 2-2 after going two nil down. We won 5-4 on penalties and that was a greatfeeling. It's always great to win on penalties but never good to lose on them.
Frickley was a very hard fought game. We did well to come out 3-1 on top. I think we only had three chances in the game but we tucked them away well. They had a few chances which they didn't put away but we defended really well and I'm very pleased with that.
It was 0-0 at Farsley last week in tough conditions. It's a tough pitch to go and play on but again, it was another strong defensive display. We probably should have taken a couple of chances but it was a good hard thought nil-nil.
We want to finish higher than last year which was sixth and that was higher than the season before. We've got good competition for places through both squads. The college are unbeaten in their league and they've got a cup game coming up soon.
There's a few lads that have stepped up from last year into the Alliance from the college squad. Then there's lads moving up to the under 19s and then to Falks with the under 23s so the progression is there.
Since writing these notes we faced a tough tie with Stockport in the league cup, coming through on penalties after a back and forth 2-2 draw.
We followed that up with a home point against a physical Blyth Spartans side, we had led up until the 89th minute, but couldn't quite hold on!