Rothbury undone by two quick-fire second half goals

ROTHBURY 1PRUDHOE YC 2Two quick-fire second half goals sent Rothbury crashing out of the League Cup but midfielder James Jackson felt that it had been a great learning experience for the younger players in the Reds’ squad.
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Experienced Jackson was moved from his normal central berth into a striking position for the tie and was full of praise for the way the club is aiming at developing local talent.

“We have a lot of young players this season and I feel as well as pushing for silverware it’s just as important to try and bring them on, so getting them game time is essential and as a senior player I won’t let my personal gains of trotting around the centre circle thinking I look good get in the way - I would much rather try and bring these kids on,” he said afterwards.

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“Harry Felton got our player of the month last month. This is a kid who just asked to come along to training in the summer with the view of it being an extra couple nights of football and he’s knocking on the gaffer’s door now and it’s hard for Dan to keep him away. He’s been amazing, also brought some new intelligence to the dressing room - the level of that intelligence I will leave for you to work out,” he joked.

“But we want this to be a club where young lads want to come and play their football so it’s great to see. So I think the balance of bringing on the other young lads Harry Felton and Alex Law when we were pushing for the equaliser was great as it could of been easy for Dan to not change it and say it was too close of a game for subs, but that’s not what he’s trying to do here - he made the subs and they made a difference. I think 5/10 more minutes on the clock and we would of got extra time!”

Although the sides went in at half time scoreless, goals from Prudhoe’s Ryan Burnyeat and Brad Rodgers in the 50th and 52nd minutes put Rothbury on the back foot. But Jackson netted his first of the season in the 66th minute to reduce the deficit and admitted that he had been a little apprehensive in taking on the role beforehand.

“I much prefer to be playing in the middle. When Dan pulled me before the game and asked if I would do a job up front I actually felt nervous to take Gar’s (Gareth McCann’s) No 9 shirt - the pressure was on to do it justice. I think he would have been proud of my finish though to be fair,” he laughed.