Sam Hudson makes ‘unusual’ admission after Portsmouth Academy loss v Luton
Portsmouth’s Academy have suffered a heavy defeat in the Youth Alliance League.
Pompey’s trip to Luton for an academy game proved to be one to forget as the young Blues were hammered 5-0, marking the second consecutive heavy defeat that they have sustained after losing to Cheltenham Town 6-1 during their last outing.
Luton are pushing for the title and flexed their qualities throughout the game, with Charlie Trustram’s brace and goals from Dylan Stitt, Archie Shepherd, and Matthew Takawira dismantling Portsmouth Academy.
The team have only managed to win two of their previous five fixtures, in what has been a difficult period for the young Blues in terms of on-field results.
Sam Hudson revealed his thoughts on the disappointing performance
Of course, at this stage in the careers of these young players, it is all about the development on the pitch, rather than the results, as they’re aiming to learn the game to potentially progress to the first team one day.
Sometimes, a heavy defeat such as this can actually be beneficial in the process of being able to learn in the moment, from how it feels personally to the way it impacts a team.
Lead professional development phase coach Sam Hudson was at the game and got a firsthand look at how his team performed, and he reflected on it to the club website.
“We couldn’t stop that at the source from our press, which is very unusual for us, and didn’t do a good job of defending the diagonals.
“The two goals we conceded in the first half both came from moments when we didn’t track the runner, which was disappointing.
“We’d worked on our build-up from the back and that was actually pretty good, up until we passed the halfway line.
“The ability to get from the middle of the pitch into the final third was lacking, but there wasn’t too much in the game.
Portsmouth must dust themselves down after the heavy loss
While the Portsmouth first team are fighting the threat of relegation, the Under-18s squad will be expected to dust themselves down and go again.
| Team | Games Played | Won | Lost | Points |
| 17. Portsmouth | 40 | 12 | 19 | 45 |
| 18. Oxford United | 41 | 11 | 17 | 45 |
| 19. Hull | 41 | 11 | 19 | 44 |
| 20. Stoke | 41 | 10 | 17 | 44 |
Portsmouth’s Under-18s team will be back in action on Saturday (12 April) when they host AFC Wimbledon, and there will be an element of pressure on the performance.
After conceding 11 goals in the past two games, the focus will likely be on improving from a defensive side of things, which will obviously start at the top of the pitch with pressing.
However, Hudson will also want to see more at the back as they haven’t scored in those matches either, which was also the case when they lost to Oxford 3-0 last month, with a little more fight being needed.