Daniel Ballard made his return from injury on Tuesday night in our 4-3 win over Monaco in the Premier League International Cup.
The 20-year-old was introduced at the break while we were 3-2 down - and Steve Bould was full of praise for his performance after such a lengthy spell on the sidelines.
We spoke to our head coach after the final whistle and this is what he said:
on the performance…
The performance was actually very good. It was a really tough game against a team that plays in a professional league over in France and they were quite a bit older than us. I think it’s a great result.
on the PL International Cup…
It’s been fabulous. Every game we’ve played so far has been a tough battle like this game and generally it’s been against an older group which is what we want, we want to be tested. It’s been a proper test and I thought tonight, it was a very tight game all round, they probably nicked the first half a little bit but it actually helped us a little bit with the shape. We had two up top with Folarin Balogun and Sam Greenwood, and Sam won us the penalty and Flo scores the winner with a great finish. I was delighted for everybody.
on a busy schedule helping the players…
The good thing about is that it mirrors a little bit the next part of their industry. When they go and play league football and play in three to five days after each other, it’s part of their learning process.
on Dan Ballard’s return from injury…
It’s fabulous for him and us. I thought he led the team great second half. He has that little bit of an older personality that we need. He settled everybody down and although we went down early in the second half, he did great.
on Zech Medley’s performance…
Zech scored with his head, which is an absolute bonus! It was great for him, the kid found it tough playing out of position on Friday night but did a grand job. Tonight playing centre back he looked a far more established player, which we know that he is.
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