Smith reflects on under-18s defeat to Brighton

Josh Smith felt that there were positives to take despite our under-18s 2-1 defeat to Brighton on Saturday.

We were reduced to ten men with the score still blank just before half-time, when Emerson Nwaneri was shown a second yellow card, but took the lead through Abraham Owusu-Gyasi shortly after the break.

The Seagulls struck back with a quick equaliser, before netting a late winner, after which Jack Talbot was shown a red card.

"I think it's really difficult to review in terms of how we wanted the game to go," Smith said on the defeat, "the landscape of the game completely changes after 30 minutes after going down to ten.

"But I thought the way that we started the game was very competitive for the first 30 [minutes]. Then the challenge when we spoke to the lads at half-time was to show that courage again."

While the first-half red card put us on the back foot in the contest, Smith felt that it was a valuable learning experience for our young Gunners to play with ten.

Our interim head coach was especially impressed with the threat we posed despite having a player less than Brighton.

"The way we controlled the game without the ball, quite often defending deep, was good today. We created chances from short counters and set pieces.

"Once again, the biggest learning is you go 1-0 up, then how do you manage that in terms of game management? That's a massive learning again for us today."

Asked about Emerson and Jack's dismissals, Smith framed the red cards as a learning curve for the young players.

"We all make mistakes. They're young players. The biggest thing for [Emerson Nwaneri] and Jack [Talbot] is that they have to learn from it. The biggest consequence for them is that they end up missing games now.

"As long as it's a learning moment and they can put that into action, that's the main thing."

Results haven't gone our way so far this season, with two draws and two defeats from four competitive outings.

But Smith feels that we're on an upwards trajectory after taking the lead with a player less against the Seagulls, and fighting back from 3-1 down to draw 3-3 with Blackburn on Tuesday.

"You can't fault their courage and we said to them before about spirit and passion. In terms of performances across the first three games this year, you can see that we're building.

"If we can combine the passion and spirit that everyone's [got] together, then add in and refine the technical actions, that's something we need to do going forwards."