First-Team Coach Ross Embleton felt there were obvious positives to take from Town’s 2-2 draw with Cheltenham Town in the Central League earlier today.
“We got a good amount of minutes into some of the boys that you would consider as first-team players,” he said.
“Tom Smith played in an alien position to him and performed really well, so as well as the valuable minutes it is really important that Tom can go into other areas of the pitch and perform to the standard required.
“The team today don’t play together as a team and they don’t train together as a team so it was really important for them to get an understanding about our expectations of the state of the game today, but also the state of the game going forward whether that’s if you’re winning 2-0 or losing 2-0 and how we consider it important to dictate to the opposition and stay in control for the remainder of the game once you go two goals up and how to execute that.
“It is something really important for the next stage of their careers.”
Tom Smith was one of the standout performers at left-wing back and capped off an impressive display with a stunning individual goal, a display that earned plenty of praise from Embleton.
“He showed when he went on the pitch against Bradford City as a makeshift left-back that he can do a job but you don’t want players being considered for a particular position on the pitch as just doing a job, you want them to be able to execute that role in the best way that they can and go and perform to the best of their abilities,” he continued.
“It is really important for Tom that he is now in consideration for that position and he scored a fantastic goal, but the biggest thing for Tom playing in that role is for us to see that he knows how to defend, he knows when to go forward and he knows when to cover.
“He did that well today."
