Talbot happy with clean sheet in West Brom draw

Jack Talbot admitted he was pleased with his performance on the opening day of the U18 Premier League season as he made a series of stunning saves to secure a 0-0 draw with West Bromwich Albion.

After a first half of few chances, the contest opened up in the second half, with Jack called into action on a number of occasions.

But the teenager rose to the challenge and kept the Baggies at bay, ensuring we started the season with a clean sheet and a point in the West Midlands.

"It was a tough game," Jack said on the game, "we knew it was going to be scrappy coming up here to West Brom.

"I think in the first half, we had to kind of ride the storm a bit and keep them out and that's what we did, and that gave us a platform to perform in the second half.

"Then obviously we had moments and I was making saves in the second half, so I enjoyed it."

While Jack made a series of stops in the second 45, one in particular from point blank range with 20 minutes to go stood out.

"It was just pure reaction really," Jack recalled, "the ball was just kind of scrapping around in the box, you see him take it down and shoot and I just reacted as quick as I could and got down to it.

"I'm really proud of the boys today, we really defended our box well, it gave us a platform to attack better as well. Obviously the next thing is finishing them chances, but I think defensively today we really coped well with their threat.

"They were very direct and we dealt with that well, that's something we identified before [the game] that we wanted to deal with, and we've done that today."

After starting the season well, Jack is looking to build on a strong performance against the Baggies having missed much of last season with injury.

"I'm focusing on playing week-in, week-out is the main thing. Last season I had quite a few injuries, which kept me out of the team quite a lot, so I think this year I really want to get that experience, playing under-18s football every week.

"[I want to] keep building on the momentum that I've built in pre-season and hopefully see progress throughout the season."