CHERRIES’ youth team had their early start rewarded when they triumphed 2-0 at Newport County on Saturday.

Carl Fletcher’s troops departed for Wales at 6.45am and although not at their best following a three-hour journey, still secured victory.

Three under-16s took their place in the Cherries side – Tyler Cordner, Corey Jordan and Curtis Young – and the visitors made the ideal start in the fourth minute.

Joe Quigley opened the scoring following a neat team move, a lead which was doubled midway through the second period.

Matt Worthington fired into the corner of the net from the edge of the box.

Academy boss Joe Roach admit-ted it had not been a performance out of the top drawer but explained that a tricky build-up had played a role in the display.

And he added that there had been plenty of positives from the trip to Wales.

Roach told the Daily Echo: “We left at 6.45am and it’s always difficult to get a team fired up and ready to go when you are travelling that distance.

“It wasn’t ideal circumstances and I think we were a little bit off the pace but the team kept going and eventually got their rewards.

“We played really well at the start and scored a goal but then Newport changed their shape a little bit to try and stop us from playing.

“We had to work out one or two things but over the 90 minutes we had quite a lot of chances and it was a deserved win.

“There was national pride at stake and Newport did cause us one or two problems.

“Performance-wise you’d want a bit more but I think we were just a bit jaded and we had a couple of players playing out of position due to injuries.

“We scored a couple of good team goals from open play, which was nice to see.”

Cherries: Stanton, Lee, Jordan, Randall, Harfield, O’Sullivan, Worthington, Butcher, Neale (Cordner, 75), Quigley (Miller, 60), Surridge (Young, 83).

  • The under-16s side were comfortable 4-1 winners over their counterparts from Newport.

The emphatic victory was particularly impressive given that Cherries had a number of under-15s players in their squad.