Notts County Under 18s overcame a stern test to beat Oldham Athletic 2-0, keeping their unbeaten start to the season going.
Second-half goals from Louis Robinson and Sam Osborne capped a fine victory for Dan Leivers' side, who claimed their second win of the season after three successive score draws.Leivers said: "I mentioned before that Oldham away is probably the toughest game of our season, in terms of the standard of the opposition.
"Their style of play was always a worry and I also took into account the ability of the lads to perform after a long journey. But I had a good feeling all week about this fixture."
It was a different story last season on the Magpies' travels to Oldham, when they conceded five without reply.
Leivers said: "With that in mind we spoke a lot about what to expect from them and how we were going to get a positive result. The players have worked so hard in training to perfect the game plan.
"We knew at times we would be under heavy pressure and that we would need to be disciplined and organised to soak it up, which we managed to do. We rode our luck at times and relied on individuals like Jordon Richards and George McCartney at centre half and Joe Searson-Smithard making some excellent saves to make sure we got to half-time with a clean sheet."
Despite last season's heavy loss, Leivers told nottscountyfc.co.uk that he had faith Notts would get chances in front of goal.
He said: "We were confident in our ability to create chances and could have scored through Tamar Clayton-Naute and Remaye Campbell in the first half, as well as having two penalty claims not given, so the half-time team talk was easy for us: 'Just keep confidence and start to dominate the game by having better possession, as well as being deadly on the counter attack'."
And that team talk and a half-time substitution paid off, with two fine second-half strikes to hand victory to the Magpies.
It was a different story last season on the Magpies' travels to Oldham, when they conceded five without reply.
Leivers said: "With that in mind we spoke a lot about what to expect from them and how we were going to get a positive result. The players have worked so hard in training to perfect the game plan.
"We knew at times we would be under heavy pressure and that we would need to be disciplined and organised to soak it up, which we managed to do. We rode our luck at times and relied on individuals like Jordon Richards and George McCartney at centre half and Joe Searson-Smithard making some excellent saves to make sure we got to half-time with a clean sheet."
Despite last season's heavy loss, Leivers told nottscountyfc.co.uk that he had faith Notts would get chances in front of goal.
He said: "We were confident in our ability to create chances and could have scored through Tamar Clayton-Naute and Remaye Campbell in the first half, as well as having two penalty claims not given, so the half-time team talk was easy for us: 'Just keep confidence and start to dominate the game by having better possession, as well as being deadly on the counter attack'."
And that team talk and a half-time substitution paid off, with two fine second-half strikes to hand victory to the Magpies.
Leivers explained: "With attacking threat from the introduction of Robinson we managed to stretch the game more and went 1-0 up through Osborne. Scoring when we did gave us even more confidence as the game went on.
"The introduction of Robinson also paid off as he capitalised from a mistake between their goalkeeper and centre half from a long kick from Searson-Smithard, a mistake created by Louis' physicality and willingness to challenge for everything. Louis was left with an open net and made sure he slotted the ball home to seal our victory.
"We missed a penalty in the second half as well as a couple of other chances, so on the whole we were really pleased with the balance between attack and defence.
“That's five games unbeaten now since the start of the season and although we have no easy games, I'm sure this team can continue their run.
"Most important though is the development each week of the players and trying to get them closer and closer to being ready for the first team, whenever that opportunity may arise."