SOUTHEND United’s head of academy Ricky Duncan has declared himself happy with the Shrimpers season.

Blues included 16 players to have come through the youth ranks at Roots Hall in their matchday squads last term.

And Duncan felt that came around after the improvements which were put in place this time last year.

“From an academy point of view we’ve always been consistent with the eights to the 16s but one of the areas we want to improve on this season was the 18s and 23s,” said Duncan.

“We sat down in the summer and really looked at it.

“The 18s had been successful but we still wanted to improve along with making changes for the 23s.”

And that resulted in extra training being putting in place.

“Last year I felt we didn’t achieve enough by not getting a player in so I sat down with Kev (Maher) last summer and looked at ways we could improve the training programme and what we could do,” said Duncan.

“We put more hours in and we made the players work.

“They were in on Saturdays until 3pm and we completely changed the schedule.

“But it’s worked because players have gone through, they are more robust and it all culminated in them winning the cup against MK Dons.

“We looked stronger and fitter towards the end and that’s what I wanted at the start of the year.

“We have players now we can cope better with that kind of environment.

“But it’s been a really good season and it’s great to see more players going through and getting involved. “ Cup finals