SOUTHEND United’s Lead Professional Development Phase Coach Danny Heath expressed his pride at the performance of the club’s schoolboys as they travelled to take on EFL Youth Alliance South East Conference champions Luton Town.

With the club’s scholars opting not to play after not being paid, Heath named a starting line-up that included a trialist alongside four under 15 players and, while the hosts were able to bring on a couple of under 19 players during the second period, the Blues youth team coach introduced a recently-turned 14-year-old and another under 15 player for their debuts.

The Shrimpers battled hard before losing 7-0 but Heath praised his players who gave their all in extremely testing circumstances.

“I’m very proud of the lads, and they should be proud of themselves,” Heath declared.

“At half-time they were 1-0 down against one of the best youth teams I’ve seen in years, and we had nothing but praise for them when we spoke to them at half-time.”

“There were times in the first half where we had to make tackles and make saves, and probably the only disappointing thing was the goal that they scored was something that we could have done better defensively in terms of defending the corner and the clearance.”

“To be in the game on 60 minutes against one of the best youth teams I’ve seen is a credit to those young lads.

"After that, it was always going to happen with the physical side of things, especially with the speed at which Luton move the ball and their runs off the ball, but in terms of the performance and the effort, they never gave up and I have nothing but a feeling of pride,” he added.

Louis Bragg captained the team on the occasion of his 15th youth team appearance, while goalkeeper Charlie Brown, midfielders Aiden Shehu and Beau Macdonald and attackers Piers Hatcliff, Chinedu Deru and Reuben Phillips had limited previous experience of representing the under 18s

Under 15s pairing Ollie Richards and Teddy Young were named at centre-back for their debuts, with Zak Gregory-Sclere another debutant at left-back.

Trialist Richie Keil completed the line-up on the left-hand side of midfield, with Micky Kelly and Archie Brown introduced for their first youth team appearances off the bench during the second period.

And Heath feels the youngsters will learn from the experience.

“This experience is something that can never be taken away from the boys, whether it was their first time playing for the youth team, the second, third, fourth, fifth or however many games they’ve played,” said Heath.

“It wasn’t like they were playing with youth team players; they were all schoolboys and they will have learned loads from playing against Luton, and that will only hold them in good stead in the long term.”

Despite the overall nature of scoreline at the end of the game,  Heath was impressed by the manner at which the team stuck to their task, and the way that the likes of Bragg, Brown, Macdonald and Hatcliff set the standards at such a young age.

“They were the ones that were looking to be the leaders; normally it’s the scholars that are leading them, but it was really pleasing at half-time that the boys were already having discussions on the pitch as they were walking in around what they had done well and what they could do better," said Heath.

“They did most of the team-talk in the dressing room, so that was brilliant to see.

"Even when we were 6-0 and 7-0 down, we were still trying to get a goal and trying to attack and create chances.”

“We’ll go through things around the tactical side of things because we did match them up in terms of personnel and changes, and there were times when we could have been better-positioned to deal with their threat, but the boys have competed well and all of them have shown positives against an excellent side."

Southend United U18s: Brown, Bragg, Gregory-Sclere, Shehu, Young,  Richards (Brown 65), Phillips (Kelly 57), Keil, Deru, MacDonald,  Hatcliff.