Shannon Ruth says his under-21s are ‘together and committed to each other’ despite a high churn of players in his squad during the January transfer window.
Two of his players went out on loan and four signings were made, but head coach Ruth believes it has only added to the strength of his squad.
“The group is close knit,” he said. “We had more come in during the window that went out which is unusual for us, but it’s added to the group as there’s more competition and quality. The togetherness and commitment to each other means that even when we’re not 100% at it, we’ve ground out a result or we’ve won a game that we didn’t play well in.”
Albion go into today’s home game against Reading (4pm kick off) on the back of a hard-fought 1-1 draw with Manchester United on Monday, and Ruth was particularly pleased with their second-half performance.
“We got a deserved equaliser, and we created a few good opportunities to get a winner,” he added. “I am pleased with the personality because when you don’t start a game well it’s quite hard to wrestle back control of the game and swing momentum in your favour, but we did that well. It wasn’t a bad point.”
Albion could move up to sixth with victory tomorrow. Currently ninth, they need to finish in the top 12 to reach the playoffs and qualify for the International Cup next season.
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“We’re taking Saturday’s game really seriously,” added Ruth. “We know it’s going to be tough because Reading have done well this year.
“It’s a club I know well. Their team are strong and they got a good result against (leaders) Tottenham even though they went down to ten men and we all know how good Tottenham have been this season.”