City's Inevitable Result

LFC Youth 3 - 0 MCFC Youth

Liverpool did to City last night what we as avid watchers of academy sides expected to see in earlier rounds, as this year's team is not blessed with the talent that previous years had seen and they failed miserably at this competition but won in spades by growing into quality first team players. This year's team however has a great team ethic. That is apart from one player who clearly shows he does not want to be there and considers himself to be of a better standard, but has failed to deliver since leaving the U16 team last season.

All credit to Liverpool though who are a wonderful passing team that work tremendously hard for one another and possess the making of a few top stars in their team. One player to pick out is Paul Barratt who City let go a couple of seasons ago and so often with hindsight, might have thought that to be the wrong decision, that might only be the case if he does make it at the top level. With City's record in the academy being among the best, no one that City have released since Jim Cassell joined the Academy to turn it into the great shining star of our club that it is today, has made it in the top flight of football.

The only real criticism that I have at the moment is the malaise that runs from the first team down to the U18s, and that is a lack of being able to make changes on the field earlier when things are not going according to plan. This gives the starting eleven a false belief that they are all playing as they should and fails to force the players into making that extra couple of percent effort that clearly makes a difference at top flight football.

I do hope the management decide not to bring back Micah Richards into the team as the team that got themselves to the final deserve a chance to try to change things around at COMS. I have a real belief that City could win the second leg, but it will only be by a one goal margin, two at the outside.

I hope City fans still come along to support our Baby Blues, they need our support at at £4 a ticket up until Thursday and £5 on Friday, its a cheap evening to come along with the family and cheer the lads on. Next week's U18 and U16s home fixtures against Sheffield United have been postponed until the 29th April with the usual 11am kick off.

City: Matthewson(GK), Obeng, Logan, Williamson, Breen, Marshall, Williams, Johnson(Capt.), Etuhu, Sturridge, Moore(C Evans 80).

Subs: Vadon(GK), Daly, Mouritsen, Clayton.

Att: 12,744.

MotM: Matthewson - pulled of some great saves to keep the score to a minimum.