U23 | Harvey: “A big learning curve!”

Academy

Cardiff City’s U23 coach Jarred Harvey and defender Ciaron Brown spoke to cardiffcityfc.co.uk after their final pre-season match, away to Wealdstone.

“It wasn’t meant to be,” began Jarred. “We had a lot of trialists in because of a few injuries which are not long-term and not too serious.

“It was a fair result and a big learning curve for some of the younger players. We started slowly and made the wrong decisions, which allowed them to get their tales up and come at us.

“It was a cup final for Wealdstone even though it’s pre-season. They were bang up for it and had a point to prove.

“We knew it was going to be a tough game and I thought the boys did well in parts. They aren’t used to these kinds of teams so that’s the idea behind playing them.

“We’ve faced quite strong sides throughout pre-season and all the players have done really well. We’re hopeful to get everybody back fit in the next week or two and then we go again.

“The aim for us is the same as every year - develop players to get near the first team. If we win games along the way then great. We’ll be judged on developing players for this football club rather than winning games. That’s our job.”

Image removed.

Former Wealdstone favourite, Brown returned to play at Grosvenor Vale for the first time since joining the Bluebirds in January 2018.

“It felt good to get back to Wealdstone,” said Ciaron. “It was just another pre-season game but the Stones led me to Cardiff City so I enjoyed it a lot.

“Tonight was another learning curve and now we know what to do if we face teams like Wealdstone again.

"It was good to see familiar faces but when we got on the pitch it was all about getting the result. Obviously, we didn’t get that but it was still an enjoyable day. We got what we needed from it - fitness and minutes.”

The central defender proceeded to talk about the tour of Devon & Cornwall, where City recorded four wins from four games, scoring 26 goals.

“The tour was good but we went down there for two things – fitness and getting back to winning ways. We needed a strong mentality to get certain things like minutes, our defensive shape and getting used to each other again.

“We take each game as it comes. When we play our first competitive game in two weeks, we’ll try to win. We want to challenge but we’re taking it game-by-game.”

Jarred Harvey’s interview and extended highlights of the match will be available to subscribers of Cardiff City TV. Keep up to date with all the most recent news via our official Academy Twitter account, @CF11Academy.