Academy manager Dave Robertson was pleased with his players' efforts against a strong Royal Marines side.
The Peterborough United under 18s began their short stay in Exeter with a 2-1 defeat to a Royal Marines Football Association XI on Monday, but despite the narrow defeat, there were plenty of positives to take from the display.Academy manager Dave Robertson was pleased with many aspects of the performance and with the majority of the squad enjoying 60 minutes of action, the exercise proved extremely worthwhile from a fitness angle as well.
'It was a great game for the boys. It was their opening pre-season friendly, we knew it would be a really physical test because of the attributes of the opposition. We asked the players to play smart and overall I was very pleased with their performance.
'All of the players that we brought with us got 60 minutes of action apart from Dion Henry, who will play in goal against Exeter on Wednesday. We will be doing that throughout the first four matches of pre-season before we start to look at playing a team for a bit longer.
'This pre-season stint in Exeter is great for fitness, but it is also good for team-building. We have a few new faces as well as the new group of first years and it is important for them to be together in the group.
'The lads will get a bit of free time to socialise on Wednesday afternoon and on Tuesday the lads will be taking a closer look at what the Marines get up to day in, day out,' Robertson said.
Robertson, who will manage the under 18s this season following the promotion of Gavin Strachan into the first team management group, also had praise for goal-scorer Jonathan Edwards, who netted the Posh goal in the defeat.
'Momentum is massively important to young players. He scored 15 or 16 goals in the last 12 games or so last season, he was playing with confidence and he has clearly taken that into pre-season and the first game of the programme.
Hopefully, he will continue to score goals for us and be a big player for us this season,' Robertson said.