Tigers enter new year in ‘good place’

Holbeach United manager Danny Clifton says the club starts 2023 in a really good place for the future thanks to the plethora of young talents they have coming through.
The Tigers are in contention for the Thurlow Nunn Division One North play-offs with a team mostly made up of teenagers from the youth set up banishing memories of last year’s relegation.
Two emerging talents Callum Davies and Kyle Compton scored four and three respectively on Boxing Day as Holbeach thrashed Parson Drove 7-1 in front of 170 at Carter’s Park.
It was a fourth win in a row, though that run was halted with a 2-1 loss at Whittlesey on Monday, January 2.
Despite that manager Clifton says the club has a bright future with three 18-year-olds, two 17-year-olds and a 16-year-old in a side more than holding its own and plenty more young players coming through.
“Both Callum and Kyle have been revelations, and they’re two of the older ones at 22 and 20 respectively,” said Clifton. “People at the club are talking about them rather than former players.
“Callum’s a real maverick, a dangerous dynamic player brought in from a level below while Kyle’s come though the youth set up and really worked hard on his game this season.
“He looks like he’s played at this level for a long while.
“There are six teenagers playing regularly all of whom are improving and a host of other young players in the development sides kicking at the door too.
“Whatever happens this season, the club’s in a good place with young players coming through that will stand it in good stead for a good six or seven years.”
The 7-1 win over Parson Drove lifted Holbeach in to the play-offs thanks to a run of four straight victories in which they scored 16 goals, though Monday’s defeat at Whittlesey puts them just outside again.
John Yambasu gave Holbeach the lead in that game, with what Clifton described as ‘the only decent bit of football from either side in the first half, a really good move’.
It was Harvey Robertson with the cross.
Whittlesey were down to ten men after Matt Carter was sent off for a second bookable offence, but they hit back with two goals in the second half to take the win.
“I’ve no excuses, we just really under performed,” said Clifton. “We’ve worked really hard with the young players on game management and they’ve been brilliant at it, it’s what’s been winning us games.
“For some reason against Whittlesey we just never got out of second gear and made two mistakes to gift them two goals.
“Our plans didn’t really come off in the first ten minutes and we stopped trying after that which is really disappointing.
“We’ve a run of tough fixtures coming up and it means we now need to beat Debenham at home this weekend.”