#PLStories- James Ward-Prowse reveals Southampton B team players learned from a losing run #SAINTSFC

SAINTS academy graduate James Ward-Prowse insists the B team’s recent torrid spell of form will have been “a good learning experience for them.”  The young Saints, coached by Dave Horseman, have made a complete U-turn in their results with five consecutive victories and clean sheets.  Before that run, they hadn’t won a game in 18 dating all the way back to February, with a relegation to Premier League 2 Division Two in that time.  A bit more attention turned towards the run when the B team lost 3-0, 2-0 and 6-0 in consecutive ties before going 2-0 up against Birmingham inside 10 minutes – only to be 3-2 down by half-time and lose – back in September. Read more The turnaround in form then coincided with the introduction of some more senior players into the side, including the likes of Will Smallbone, Nathan Tella, Yan Valery and talented 17-year-old Thierry Small. Saints B's Kegs Chauke is reportedly attracting interest from Manchester City (Pic: PA) And there’s no better example for the youngsters than Ward-Prowse, Saints captain, academy golden boy and England international, to show the rise that you can have at the club. “Yeah of course it’s difficult (seeing them lose every week),” the 27-year-old admitted to the Daily Echo, “it’s difficult to see the academy and B team struggle. Got some great pictures of #SaintsFC stars in their academy days. First, James Ward-Prowse playing against Barcelona. pic.twitter.com/Qiiw3PejR2 — Pick Southampton (@PickSouthampton) May 8, 2013 “But I think this is all part of the players’ journeys, you know you’re not always going to have wins every week.” Ward-Prowse added. “It’s different when you get to the Premier League, if you do lose a lot of games it soon catches up with you. Saints skipper James Ward-Prowse (Pic: Stuart Martin) “But I think it was a good learning experience for them and I’m sure they have got the right people around them to get them through the spell and make sure they learn through this period of their careers.” A number of Saints’ youngsters have caught the eye with top performances in the last five, including the aforementioned wing-back Small, central defender Dynel Simeu, attacker Kazeem Olaigbe and right-back Lewis Payne. Two of the under-18s, who have been appearing in the under-23 competitions, in Dominic Ballard and Kamari Doyle, both 16, received call-ups to England under-17s. Congratulations, Dom and Kamari! 👏The #SaintsFC youngsters have been selected for #YoungLions duty with England's U17s this month! 🦁 — Southampton FC (@SouthamptonFC) November 11, 2021 Since making his debut aged 16 during an EFL Cup clash with Crystal Palace in October 2011, Ward-Prowse has made 333 appearances for Saints. He had an England under-21 call-up in 2013. James Ward-Prowse made his Saints debut over a decade ago (Pic: PA) Gareth Southgate gave him his senior England bow in 2017, for whom he has played nine times since. Appointed as Saints’ club captain in 2020. He’s come a long way from the days as a Saints scholar, secretly training at Portsmouth-local non-league side Havant & Waterlooville to get tougher. James Ward-Prowse has scored twice for England (Pic: PA) Ward-Prowse knows what it takes to ascend from a talented kid in the academy to the man, although you’d be surprised to hear that knowledge is yet to really be picked at. “I haven’t had any of that this season yet no,” he remarked, “but obviously we have some of the lads train with us and be around us so that would be a good time to maybe have a chat with them and see how they’re doing. “That’s a different challenge for them, when they come up and train with us, to be at a certain level, so there’s a good demand on them but that’s part of parcel of being a Premier League footballer.”