A first half brace from 16-year-old Xavier Parker set the tone before goals from Tyrone Samba and Kylan Midwood meant Regan Hendry’s late strike was merely a consolation.
It was the team’s first set of competitive minutes in the new season and under new Lead Coach Reiss, who stepped into the role in the summer.
He and the team have spent the past five weeks of pre-season preparing for this moment and undoubtedly the hard work paid off as City put the League One outfit to the sword.
And for Reiss, he was delighted with his team’s performance and feels it is just a small reflection of what is to come from the young blues.
“The way we performed today, we conceded a lot of chances against us but especially in terms of the desire to defend and compete and to be brave as well in possession,” began Reiss.
“The result, in terms of the performance, I’m quite happy today.
“I think we got already a little bit of flavour of what we can expect hopefully in the future.
“It’s not always about City and 80% possession. This is our approach, we want to have it. But what I would like to have every time, even when the phase [of play] is not top on the day, [but we have] the desire to defend, the reaction after losing the ball, just the reaction in transition moment [is top].
“So to see intensity on the pitch should always be there. And then it is about what is the opponent doing, how good is the opponent, how good are we and brave in possession.”
Debuts don’t get much better than a first half brace, and that was exactly what Xavier Parker produced in his first set of minutes for the EDS and in the EFL Trophy.
The 16-year-old returned to the City Football Academy just over a week ago after spending almost a fortnight on City’s Tour of Asia with Enzo Maresca’s squad.
And it’s clear he was eager to bring back what he learnt in the first-team environment and onto the pitch on Wednesday evening in a performance that Reiss was full of praise for.
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“He deserves to step into the EDS,” said Reiss when asked about Parker’s eye-catching debut.
“Not just because of his potential, also because of his behaviours and his performance in the last season.
“So this is the main reason why he’s now with the EDS already.
“He’s a young player. You can feel in these kind of games, the areas where he has to improve and it’s the same today. I think in terms of his performance, he can do better.
“But this is normal, this is okay, it’s just his second game after not playing for four weeks.
“So we were very happy with him, but we know he can do better. Two goals I’m not complaining, because it’s nice, it could have been one more,” Reiss joked.
“Very happy with him today.”
