Horseman proud of resiliance in EFL Trophy win

David Horseman said he "couldn't be prouder" of our under-21s after a resilient performance secured a 2-1 win over League One Leyton Orient in the EFL Trophy.

Having fallen a goal behind to Nicholas Oyekunle's header, we drew level right on half-time through Archie Stevens before Andre Harriman-Annous netted a late winner.

Between our two goals, there was plenty of defending to do, with the hosts piling on the pressure, but our young Gunners held out to convert their best performance of the season so far into their best result.

"I think the first 20 minutes was probably as good as we've played in the year I've been here," a smiling Horseman said, "if we were more clinical in the final third, we probably could have been comfortable for most of the game.

"Bar the goalkeeper, all of their [players] have featured quite a lot in the Football League this year. So when I looked at the team sheet and how young we were, I'm expecting a tough game.

"But I couldn't be more proud of the boys. I think we played absolutely brilliantly. Everybody knows, traditionally, under-21s teams don't win many of these games, so it was a really proud night for us."

Our matchday squad is one of the younger in Premier League 2 as it is, but it had an especially young look to it at the BetWright Stadium with several of our regular under-21s starters with out first team squad for our Carabao Cup win at Ipswich Town.

Given the young make-up of the team, Horseman was especially proud of the defensive resilience we showed either side of our winning goal to close out the victory.

"We did loads of tactical stuff [this week] but sometimes, actually, you've just got to want to block [shots] and defend your goal.

"Not just the defenders and Khari were great, but the midfielders, you've got Igor Tyjon tracking it back at the end winning the ball back. All the boys defended the goal really well.

"We have a principle, we defend our house, which is our goal, and I thought they really did that."

While Horseman was impressed with our defending, he felt that we could have avoided the need to spend quite so much time in our own third of the pitch.

Having been impressed with our fast start, our head coach felt we could've maintained our momentum by keeping up our higher line.

"I wanted us to stay higher, because the higher we were, for the first 20 minutes, our back line was so high, I thought we were in control of the game.

"Then we got deeper and deeper. It's something young players do, you saw national teams do it at the World Cup, but it's something we've got to learn if we want to be elite.

"When you watch our first team defend high, the keeper and the centre-backs can defend the space [behind their line] and I think that's something that we've probably got to look to do more.

"But overall, I'm really proud of them and that's a huge result, and it gives us half a chance in the last game [of the group] at Wimbledon."

While our head coach was proud of his whole team, he had particular praise for our goalkeeper Khari Ranson.

As well as starting several attacks with his quick distribution, Ranson made a series of fantastic saves with the score at 1-1 which provided us the platform to go on and win the game.

"He was terrific," Horseman said on his goalkeeper, "his footwork in his passing at the back was as good as it's been for him since I've been here.

"I thought he was outstanding when he took a couple of crosses at the end. It was really positive, and we always focus on the goalscorers but he made some crucial saves.

"Jack [Porter] in Napoli had a really good game as well, so we're really lucky we have two good goalkeepers.

"They're both competing to be the number one for the under-21s, so at the moment they're getting back-to-back games and then we see the next one."

It's not just in the goalkeeping department that we have several options this season, with an array of summer signings strengthening our squad for the 2026/27 campaign.

Horseman admitted it's been a luxury to have quality options like match-winner Andre Harriman-Annous to turn to on his bench.

"We've got a much better squad this year, the recruitment team have done a great job. The club have really backed the Academy.

"Brining in Igor [Tyjon], Elijah [Upson] and a few others, and then Hale End brings up Emi [Emerson Nwaneri] and Teshaun [Murisa] and everybody else.

"So it's really positive, when it comes to the bench this year, we have so many options and some that weren't even here tonight.

"On top of that, a few of the under-18s really stepped up, Emerson and Teshaun really haven't played much for us, so it was a positive night for the Academy, that's for sure."