“Ammers must be agressive against Ahmed” – Casey O’Reilly
The former Yorkshire Amateur manager coached Selby Town forward Tawheed Ahmed at u21 level. He provides an insight into both teams ahead of Ammers’ trip to The Robins in the NCEL Division One tomorrow.
O’Reilly has since returned to playing, within Ammers’ reserves, since his time leading the project at The Southerns Stadium.
His relationship began with the North-Leeds club when leading the u21s squad.
“We played with high & wide wingers [as u21s manager]. It was to get the wingers, including Tawheed, isolated against the full-backs and centre-backs,” described O’Reilly. “What he did very well was, if the ball was on the other side, he wouldn’t be aggressive in his own runs, but rather enjoy staying on the outside and going one-v-one”.
O’Reilly’s experience managing the attacker supports his suggestions for the current Ammers squad to be “aggressive, really tight to him – he didn’t like it. Then if he loses his head, he’s not the same player”.
The obvious replacements in central defence, replacing the suspended Craig Maynard, include another alumni of O’Reilly’s u21s squad, Theju Kongolo as well as current academy versatile defender Monroe Sternberg. The opportunity has arose following Maynard’s red-card against Armthorpe last Saturday.
“TJ’s pace shouldn’t be touched upon, he’s got to use his physicality & be tight to Ahmed,” confirmed O’Reilly. “Tawheed’s very clever at, once he’s past a player, getting his body between defender and ball”.
O’Reilly led the project at Ammers as manager, heavily reliant on it’s long-term development of players within the youth academy. The former manager then returned to playing within The Ammers’ reserves following the end of his first-team managerial tenure.
“We’ve only got players in the reserves that are capable of playing in the first-team. Players who have already been a part of The Ammers’ youth system,” delved O’Reilly. I’m still available for the reserves. But i’ve told Deeney [joint-manager Ashton Campbell] that I want to be playing for the first-team.”
Kick-off at The Fairfax Plant Hire Stadium on Saturday is at 3pm for the league fixture as The Robins host The Ammers.