ACADEMY chief Joe Roach was full of praise for Cherries’ attacking intent in their 4-2 win over Torquay United and admitted: “It could have been more.”

Goals from Corey Jordan, Matt Neale, Matt Worthington, and Jack Simpson saw Carl Fletcher’s under-18s secure back-to-back wins in the Youth Alliance seven days after Sam Surridge and Matt Butcher scored in a 2-1 success at Oxford United.

Gulls youth coach Kevin Nancekivell backed Cherries to challenge at the right end of the 10-team South West section after the hosts raced into a three-goal lead before the break and quickly added a fourth after the restart.

And having established themselves among the early pacesetters ahead of a tricky trip to Swindon Town tomorrow (11am), Roach believes things can only get better for the Cherries’ up-and-coming talent.

Roach told the Daily Echo: “By Torquay’s own admission, the scoreline could have been more emphatic.

“Everything we have been progres-sing with came to fruition which was pleasing, especially as we had worked on switching the play in the week building up to the game.

“We wanted to get the ball from one side to the other a little bit quicker so we could exploit sides and two of our goals came from that work which was especially pleasing.

“It just shows that the lads have taken on board our work through the week and applied it on a match day so we couldn’t have asked for more.

“With all due respect it could have been six at half-time (against Torquay). We conceded two sloppy goals but at 4-0 it was difficult to keep driving the lads on and we got a little bit complacent.

“We needed a game where we could press home our philosophy and the coaching programme has enabled us to do that. We’re putting the building blocks in place each week and it’s coming together quite nicely.

“Strangely enough, the next part focuses on the final third so if we can add that to the rest of it we should keep performing well.

“I felt something like this result was going to come at some stage because the lads have shown a real commitment to taking on board the information we have been giving them.

“We were pleased because we had lads away with the under-21s last Friday which disjointed the training but the lads didn’t let it affect what they were doing.”

On the Swindon trip, Roach added: “The people at Torquay said Swindon had a decent side so it should be a good game. We’re looking forward to it.”