Pearce: 'Scoring 11 goals was really pleasing!'

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Jason Pearce was delighted with the ruthless nature of his team's performance's as the U18s recorded an emphatic 11-1 win at Erith & Belvedere in the FA Youth Cup.

Patrick Casey and Micah Mbick both netted hat-tricks, with seven different players getting themselves on the scoresheet at the Acclaim Handling Community Stadium.

“I'm really pleased with the performance," said Pearce post-match. "I’ve played in games like these against lower level teams and you have to respect what they do. They play a lot of direct football and we had to deal with that.

"I talked about mentality with the lads, which was key tonight. I thought they were excellent - it was disappointing to concede a goal but we scored some really good ones.

“I said to them at half-time that, for me, I felt we could have been better. I had a little pop at them at half-time, although we were 5-1 up, and I said that I wanted 10. Scoring 11 goals was really pleasing!"

The young Addicks will now travel to Huddersfield Town in round three.

“Winning games brings confidence but, being honest, we haven’t had the results recently that we would have liked," Pearce added. "Performances have been okay, but they could have been better. We need to get back to winning games and winning them in the right way, and tonight is a really good start.

"Something I have questioned of the players this season is their mentality so to show what they did tonight was really pleasing," he continued. "Obviously they are learning and they are getting there. We will go into the game with confidence for sure and, again, it will be another tough game."

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