Rovers U18s manager Chad Gribble has paid credit to his side’s performance throughout their seventh game of preseason as they ran out 2-1 winners against Morecambe at Cantley Park.
Gribble’s side returned to home soil for the first time in four games and found themselves behind early on but goals from Jack Goodman and Jack Raper saw Rovers record back-to-back wins for the second time this summer.
The hosts were presented with a number of challenges against their Youth Alliance North West opposition but Gribble felt the U18s showed a number of pleasing attributes as they got their fourth win of pre-season.
He said: “I’m pleased with the performance, we’ve come back from behind again so that’s a good trait to have and I thought we showed great body language off the back of going behind to get back in it.
“For the majority of the game we had control, but Morecambe were tough to break down and it’s never easy to play against sides who have that amount of bodies behind the ball and are structured and organised that well.
“I liked how we had sustained waves of attacks and if anyone was going to go on and get the winner it was going to be us and we did that.”
Rovers scored at the death to get their second late winner within four days and Gribble thought it showed the confidence running through the U18s.
He added: “I think winning at the end again shows that there’s belief in the team, we got the winner by playing our way, we didn’t go off script and I think that shows that the players have got complete trust in one another and in their ability to carry our the plan we’ve given them going into a game.
“A huge amount of credit has to go to the lads for that but not just for today, but for this week with what we did on Tuesday.”