He had a short trial at Preston right before we signed him. Played in a 5-1 defeat to Carlisle at reserves level. Got booked and was subbed after 60 mins.
Says here Wootton played for PNE on trial, and it's dates March 12th... I guess we didn't offer him a contract afterall. Anyone know more about this?
Linkage:
http://www.pnefc.premiumtv.co.uk/page/YouthsFixtures/0,,10362~1238262,00.html
Walsall U18s 4 Preston U18s 1
Posted on: Wed 12 Mar 2008
A reshuffled PNE youth side lost 4-1 away to Walsall following a wobbly second half.
It was 1-1 at the break and North End had chances to bag the three points at the sunny Birmingham County ground. Unfortunately, the Saddlers killed the game after scoring three goals during a 22-minute spell in the second period.
Smyth put Preston ahead inside four minutes after latching on to captain Matty Mainwaring's right winged corner. Smyth waited at the back post and as the ball reached him he just tapped it in, giving the Lilywhites a terrific start
Preston continued to impress with a tight defence and slick passing but they lost the fluidity twenty minutes into the game. Walsall stepped up a gear and their pressure paid off on 20 minutes when Josh Craddock scored his first of three goals. Chris Thompson made an excellent initial save but was unable to stay on his feet to deny Craddock's point-blank effort.
Soon after the equaliser Craddock came close to doubling his team's tally in a one-on-one with Thompson, but this time the PNE keeper made himself big, determined to keep the home side at bay.
Walsall had one more shot on target and two efforts narrowly over the bar before the half time whistle. At the other end, Mainwaring, Higgins and Smyth combined well to create an opportunity that nearly caused Walsall's Bucchus Hassan to score an own goal.
After PNE's promising first half display, Craddock caught the Lilywhites off guard, giving the home side the lead which proved to be the beginning of a set-back too hard to recover from.
Ciaron Barton felt unwell throughout the first half and was replaced by Coach Jamie Hoyland with Michael Conchie being introduced up front. In a reshuffle, Smyth became a centre half for the first time in a competitive game.
One minute past the hour, the gaffer brought on Mike Aspin and Danny Mayor in a double substitution to try and turn the score around. But instead, Craddock completed his hat-trick on 65 minutes before Walsall's substitute James Traves sealed the win after cheekily snatching the ball in front of Thompson.
Higgins had numerous attempts to pull one back but was either slightly off target or denied by the keeper. Walsall scored an offside-goal in the closing minutes and Aspin made sure the score remained 4-1 after clearing a ball off the goal line.
After the full time whistle Coach Jamie Hoyland said: "After the first half performance I thought we would go on and win the game but it didn't turn out that way.
"The goals that they scored are down to our own silly mistakes where we switched off which is disappointing but something I know we can work on.
"We passed the ball well, certainly up until the last third, but then we couldn't create enough tempo and took the wrong decisions. Walsall who are a big strong side were able to get back, regroup and defend.
"I think we should have created more as two or three chances in the second half isn't enough but some of our players just didn't' do themselves justice.
"Phil Appiah got battered all over the place and the two midfielders that he played against certainly dished out a bit of stuff to him. He picked himself up and got on with the game which shows some maturity in him.
"Tom Smyth also did well up front and at the back. He played in defence for the first time in a friendly against Stockport County midweek and did really really well so that's another string to his bow and something for me to have a look at."
Hoyland fielded three trialists - Scott Wootton, Ben Parsonage and Kyle Blake and admitted:
"It can be difficult coming into the team like that but we'll probably give them a bit more time to settle in to see if they can flourish."
Preston's goalscorer Tom Smyth added: "I've played there a few times in training and against Stockport and Jamie asked me to do the job again, and I didn't say no.
"It was 1-1 at half time and we believe we can win any game if the score is levelled at that point but we just went downhill in the second half.
"We wanted to come back with a result after travelling and are all disappointed that it didn't happen."
PNE: Thompson, Blake (Aspin 61), Shearwood, Appiah, C Barton (Conchie 46), Wootton, Parsonage, A Barton (Mayor 61), Smyth, Higgins, Mainwaring. Sub not used: Cudworth.
Bookings: PNE; Mainwaring (81). Walsall; Davies (59), Bentley (81).
