Academy column: Exeter cup pride and Flanno return

Our manager Jürgen Klopp gave a massive boost to the Academy last week when he put his trust in a very young side to take to the field against Exeter City in the FA Cup third round. It was a really big ask for the young lads, especially playing on a more difficult surface than what they are used to, but I thought they acquitted themselves admirably. It was wonderful they were given this opportunity and trusted to do a job under the circumstances. I thought they showed really good character to twice come from a goal down and the one thing about these young lads is they never give up. It sends wonderful signals to the rest of the Academy boys that if they continue to work hard and impress then they never know what could be around the corner.

In the centre of midfield at St James Park we had Cameron Brannagan who has been at the club since the age of five, Conor Randall at right-back who has been here since the age of six, and Kevin Stewart who has been out injured. What a lot of people perhaps don’t know is Kevin has been out of action for over 12 weeks with an injury he picked up during his loan spell with Swindon Town. For Kevin to play the full 90 minutes and play well shows you his desire and character and I thought he linked up nicely with Cameron in midfield. They certainly didn’t look out of place.

The fact our two goals on the night were scored by Academy players was a nice moment. We know Jerome Sinclair is capable of scoring goals so it was great to see him score on his first start for the first team. He will take a lot of confidence from that, and then Brad Smith got the equaliser with a great finish. We know the qualities Brad has got and I know he has impressed the manager at Melwood. It was also a lovely moment for Sheyi Ojo to come off the bench and create the equaliser. Sheyi is very direct with a lot of ability and he and Ryan Kent, who also did well on his debut, can both push on now and hopefully show the manager what they are capable of.

It is a real shame for Jordan Rossiter that he is on the sidelines with a hamstring injury at the moment. I have no doubt if he was fit then he would have certainly been involved last Friday night. Jordan has been so unfortunate with injuries probably for a year now, starting with the ankle injury he picked up playing in the FA Youth Cup tie against Birmingham City. Jordan has a great attitude and he will be working as hard as anyone to come back and come back stronger.

We have had another boost by seeing Jon Flanagan back on the pitch again after his injury lay-off. He is getting stronger day-by-day and he got another 45 minutes under his belt when he won a penalty playing for the U21s in our win at Southampton last Monday. Jon is a wonderful worker and it will be a really good addition to our first-team squad to have him available for selection again. Jon has a really good positive impact on everybody and we are all delighted to see him back.

This week has also seen the return of Danny Ward from his loan spell with Aberdeen. Danny kept 12 clean sheets up in Scotland which is brilliant by anyone’s standards. He will have benefited hugely from that experience with Aberdeen and he did very well for them. He now has the opportunity to be back here and work with the first-team squad. Danny is a really good character and I’ve really enjoyed working with him at the Academy. He is a goalkeeper with a really bright future and hopefully he can have an impact in the first-team squad.

The Academy is always a hive of activity and during the past week we have had a lot of our age groups playing tournaments in Germany and various other places which is a wonderful experience for them. I am very, very fortunate to have the staff I do because I think all of them go above and beyond. The Academy is only as good as the people that work there and I am lucky to have as many good staff as I do.

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