Michael Skubala believes his Leeds United U21s will be better for the experience of taking on Bolton Wanderers in the Papa John’s Trophy. The Whites fell to their first defeat of the season on Tuesday night, losing 3-0 to the League One outfit at the University of Bolton Stadium.
There was plenty to like about the youngsters’ performance against a strong Trotters outfit, though, and they had a number of chances to take the lead in the first half, with Sean McGurk spurning the best chance of the lot. However, Jon Dadi Bodvarsson gave Bolton the lead in the 14 th minute of the game and despite a battling performance from Skubala’s side, Amadou Bakayoko and Kieran Sadlier found success late on to secure Bolton’s place in the knockout stages of the competition.
Leeds still have one game to play in the competition and they know a win over Crewe Alexandra at Gresty Road in a fortnight’s time will seal their own berth in the next round. Skubala won’t spend too much time focusing on the result against Bolton, but he was more than happy with what he saw from his squad.
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“A huge test, a great test going against a good team and credit to their team and staff, Bolton are a good team and they play lots of decent football,” the U21s boss said after the game. “There was lots of decent challenges but I thought first half we really matched them and we could have scored a couple.
“I think as a team if we’re creating chances we must be doing something right, as individuals they have to step up in the big moments and score those goals. I think we just need to keep creating chances and I think tactically we’re in the right place. If the players get more exposure to those big chances in games like this, they’ll get more comfortable and score more goals, it’s a cycle in that sense.”
He added: “It’s a top experience, an absolutely amazing experience for them and the Papa John’s is amazing. You could say in the first half we’ve matched them and we should have scored but we couldn’t keep going and there was a bit of physicality and the tempo is different from the Premier League 2, so yeah, really good.”
With the first-team playing two games before the end of the week, the likes of Joe Gelhardt, Wilfried Gnonto and Sam Greenwood were not involved against Bolton. However, the game provided Joel Robles with the opportunity to make his first appearance in a Leeds shirt following his summer move to Elland Road.
The Spanish goalkeeper fared well, too, and Skubala insists he had an important role to play.
“It’s a bit of experience, Joel wanted to play a game and we can drop older players into the Papa John’s,” he said. “I thought it was a really good blend with the two inexperienced players in Morten Spencer and James (Debayo), who’s 17, to have an experienced goalkeeper.
“I thought he made some big saves, his experience, his quality, his calmness at times, he’s a really experienced keeper. I thought he did well.”
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