Manager Keith Hill has admitted that he’s really excited about the talent that is coming through the club’s academy and into the first team.
This season has seen Academy graduates including Jamie Allen, Johny Diba and Scott Tanser, to name just three, all feature for the first team, with scholars Nyal Bell, Billy Hasler-Cregg and Kisimba Kisimba already catching the eye of the management.
Speaking ahead of Saturday’s trip to Crawley Town, Hill says he’s excited about the “unbelievable project” that’s ongoing at the club.
“We don’t know where we are, and like I said on Tuesday night, we won’t know until probably after 23 games. It’s a difficult league, and I know that it was the JP Trophy the other night, but we were playing against Crewe who are in our league, so we were pleased to get the result.
“I’ve been really pleased with the performances so far this season but it’s a results driven business and sometimes it’s annoying and frustrating from my perspective because we’re trying to develop the football club for the future. We have to get results in the present time and that’s the enormity of the task.”
He continued: “But I must admit that I’m enjoying it. I love this squad of players and I’m really, really pleased. I’m looking to the future and I’m really pleased with the prospects of us being really successful. Where are we at this moment in time? I’ve got absolutely no idea.
“I’ve mentioned before to the Board of Directors and the staff that I’m really excited about this project. Brian Barry-Murphy calls it a project and I look at him and think it’s great saying that because you’re not the Manager,” laughed Hill. “But I’m also very enthusiastic with him about the project.
“Like I said, I’ve got look at my future and be a little bit selfish as well at times, but it’s an unbelievable project when you look at it in its entirety - the squad of players that we’ve got from last season and carried into this season, the emergence of Jamie Allen and Scott Tanser, as well as Bastien [Hery] coming to the fore. Then I’ve got Billy [Hasler-Cregg], Kisimba Kisimba, Joel [Logan], Callum Camps, Johny Diba, Nyal Bell, and we’re really, really excited by it.
“But as I seen during the week at Crewe, the fans only expect one thing and that’s a positive result. We’re playing well, and we’ve picked up a few negative results, but more recently a few positive results.
“The performances have been brilliant, but we have to start looking through the performances and starting getting the results. I have to make sure that players learn from their mistakes and then put into place the actions that they need to do to get positive results as well as performances.”
Allen and Hery have struck up an excellent midfield partnership, something Hill speaks very enthusiastically about.
“It’s an exciting partnership and it must be for the supporters.
“And to give Jamie Allen the Captain’s armband the other night was a natural thing for me to do. I think it’ll be a natural progression that Jamie could be Captain of this football club, in the same way that I made Jacob Butterfield captain when I was at Barnsley. People looked at me as though I was square, but you know I’m not square I’m pretty round,” joked Hill.
“I trust Jamie and it gives me great pleasure doing things like that. And I’ve got trust and stick to the partnership [between Jamie and Bastien] because it’s evolving.”
The full eleven minute interview is available on Dale Player.