Don't see how people can be embarrassed by the team last night.
Bottom line is we had THREE 17 year olds and an 18 year old in our first team 11.
Not blowing my own trumpet here .... well, actually I am
, but I do recall my saying exactly the situation last night could well arise. Many on here saying if the kids are good enough we should pick pick them and I was saying that you just can't blood kids and expect them to step-up to the plate and there is no substitute for experience. Such a scenario as last night (closing out a game when 1-0 up) was always on the cards and it was always going be very hard for a bunch of inexperience kids, and so it proved.
They are naive, the will make mistakes. It is a learning curve for them. You can't just throw them in and expect them to win games for us at the drop of a hat. It's going to take time and quite a bit of time for sure. i would urge all supporters not to take their frustrations out on the team. The one exception to this of course, where players are not breaking sweat or putting in the required effort, as has been labelled at McSheff and Bell thus far.
Fact is, with 4 players of 18 or less in a Championship side last night was an accident just waiting to happen.
I am not too upset about last night to be honest. Always felt that if Palace got one they would probably get two. My focus is on the fact that we are already flooding the side with kids only 4 games into the season and that really does not bode well. They need to be brought in gently and be given time to both step up and grow up and adjust. They will make mistakes, they will show naivety and there is a chance of burn-out fielding them week after week after week.
As has been banged on about since the start of the season this squad is very thin and not just very thin, but now proved to be suicideally thin!
Unless we bring players in (not holding my breath), it's going to be one long, hard season.
Ohh, and leave off Andy Thorn. He may well or well not have what it takes, but I would defy any manager to come in and build a winning side out of a squad as such as ours. He has a near impossible task, so fans calling for his head is just plain laughable.