Shayon praises team-mates after Crawley outing

Shayon Harrison praised the physical resilience of his younger team-mates after Tuesday night’s draw with Crawley Town in the Checkatrade Trophy.

The Development Squad produced an impressive performance against the League Two side to draw 1-1, but unfortunately missed out on claiming an extra point in Southern Group A after losing 5-3 in the resulting penalty shootout.

With four Under-18s in the starting XI, the physicality of the match was always going to be a test but 21-year-old forward Shayon, who put us into the lead shortly after the second half began, was full of positivity over the way the younger members of the team stood up.

“It was a very good performance, especially from the young lads who had their first time coming in and playing in a proper men’s environment against a good Football League side,” said Shayon, who latched onto a defensive error to drill home low off the post.

“The main thing, especially against these Football League teams, is making sure you compete, because it’s a very physical contest. If you don’t match them physically, it’s always going to be a difficult game.”

After making his first team debut for us in an EFL Cup tie at Liverpool in October, 2016, Shayon has enjoyed loan spells at Yeovil Town and Southend United over the last couple of seasons. He said he hoped to pass on some of the lessons learned there to the younger players in action at the Broadfield Stadium.

“I tried to help them where possible,” he said. “Obviously, after playing a few games at this level, I’m kind of used to it whereas some of the other boys were quite young, so I’m hoping I was able to guide them a little bit. They looked comfortable out there on the pitch, though, and they can all be proud of themselves.”

Despite the disappointment of a penalty shootout defeat, we claimed one point from the match and Shayon was particularly impressed with the performance of central midfielder Jamie Bowden, who also shone for the Under-18s in a 5-2 win at Southampton on Saturday.

“Jamie in the midfield, in his first game, looked so comfortable and looked like he’s played in 100 games already!” smiled Shayon. “I was really proud of him and it was an honour to play with all the lads.”