Brabin impressed with fringe players at Eagles

HATTERS boss Gary Brabin was delighted with the performance of his fringe players as they defeated Bedford Town 2-0 in the Bedfordshire Senior Cup on Tuesday night, writes Mike Simmonds.

Brabin had a watching brief from the stands at the Eyrie, and saw his side, containing 10 players with first team experience, triumph thanks to two late goals by youth striker Jake Woolley.

He said: “I thought it was a really good exercise for the lads who have come back from injury, along with some of the development players, and some of the young lads who are not even in the development group yet.

“It was a really good game for them, a good test. We played some good football in patches and got two great goals.

“I thought Jake has worked his socks off, (Jerry) Nash in midfield did really well too. I was delighted we kept a clean sheet as everyone to a man did really well.

“They (Bedford) made it hard and were getting really tight to us.

“They worked hard to try and stop us from playing, but we worked hard to keep playing football. In the end we got stronger and stronger, our passing got more and more fluent.”

Another pleasing aspect for Brabin was the return of both Dean Beckwith and Shane Blackett from injury.

Beckwith played the first 45 minutes, while Blackett completed the full match and looked very comfortable.

Brabin continued: “We weren’t going to play Dean for a full 90 minutes, and it was just a precaution that we took him off at half time.

“He’s made giant strides, he’ll be training Wednesday and is in our thoughts for Saturday.

“Shane said that’s the best he’s felt which is a really pleasing sign. Hopefully he can get stronger and stronger and kick on from here.”

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