Match Report & Highlights: Croston Sports Club U23s 2 - 5 Bamber Bridge U23s (23/09/26)
U23s manager Louis Bonnage shares his thoughts after the 5 - 2 win away at Croston.
The Under 23s climbed to 3rd in the Lancashire Football League East table after an impressive 5-2 away win over Croston Sports Club U23s.
Following the victory, manager Louis Bonnage shared his thoughts.
"A really good performance from the lads land one that was much needed after the previous game.
We started like a house on fire, scoring inside the opening five minutes. In truth, we could arguably have been two goals up before we even got the first!
It was fantastic to see Seth Hadj-Youb get his first competitive outing for us after returning from the injury he picked up just a week before the season started.
We’d toyed with where best to use him and felt there was something in him as a centre-forward. What we didn’t expect was four goals inside an hour!
Credit to the lad, he was absolutely magnificent and, on the night, simply unplayable.
There were some other really strong performances across the pitch too. Joe Noblet brought an abundance of experience, captaining the side superbly, while Jimmy McPhee seemed to cover every single black pellet on the turf!
It was also brilliant to have George Byrne feature for us. He’s a top goalkeeper and was superb on the night. We were all disappointed with the goals we conceded after getting ourselves 5–0 up, particularly for George because his performance deserved better.
There’s still plenty for us to work on and build upon, but the positives continue to come week by week.
Another big one for us was 17-year-old Ethan Hall earning a call-up to the first team – another young player showing there is a pathway there if you work hard and perform.
We’ll keep working, keep developing these lads and keep doing what we’re doing.
Plenty more to come"
Next up for the U23s is a home game against Winstanley Warriors on Tuesday 6 October (venue TBC).