Coach highlights progress of Northern Youth

NORTHERN Youth have made steady progress in the National Soccer League despite most of their players being new to the country’s premier football competition, according to coach Samson Steven.
He said the development team were taking it one game at a time in their debut season in the semi-professional competition.
Steven praised his men for their 1-0 win over Morobe United in round six at Sir Ignatius Kilage Stadium in Lae on Saturday.
He said they worked hard for the win — their first in the competition — following their round-five loss to fellow league rookies Sepik.
“The loss to Sepik was bit of a disappointment but we identified what went wrong in our game and what needed to be done in our next game,” Steven said.
“We made a few adjustments to the technical aspect of the game and it worked well.
“We are monitoring the progress of the team every week.
“They dropped their performance against Sepik but bounced back with a win which is a good indication that we’re heading in the right direction.”
But the former United coach said they still had a lot of areas to work on despite the win against their more experienced opponents.
Steven said it was important to be competitive throughout each match as any lapse in concentration could prove costly at the semi-professional level.
“We lacked fitness which showed in our completion rate against United,” he said.
“Therefore, we need to work with the team on that area ahead of our next game.”