City’s kids eye treble ahead after cup rout
ACADEMY BOSS CHALLENGES SIDE TO SEAL CLEAN SWEEP
CITY academy coach Gareth Taylor challenged his side to take the first step towards an Under-18 treble before their 6-0 win over Stoke to lift the Premier League Cup.
The Blues are top of the Under-18 Premier League North and are into the semi-finals of the FA Youth Cup, but they first had to retain their Under-18 Premier League Cup title on Tuesday at the Academy Stadium.
With the game evenly poised in the first half, City took the lead through Sam Edozie’s deflected strike. It came at a time when Stoke will have been disappointed to go in behind – so they will have been mystified at losing 6-0 following a ruthless City spell after the break in which they scored five times in 14 minutes.
The final two goals were scored by captain Cole Palmer, who revealed Taylor had challenged them to keep their dreams of a treble alive.
He said: “It was a good night all round for the team, for the fans, for the staff. Obviously we’ve worked hard to get here so it’s good to get the win at the end of it.
“It’s a good second-half performance. We obviously scored five goals. The first half, it wasn’t shaky but there wasn’t the goals there. The second half we turned up.
“Gaz said to us before the game it’s the start of hopefully the treble so we can kick on now. It’s not the end of the season, we need to carry on working hard.”
Palmer also joked that he was claiming a hat-trick, as Edozie’s opener came off his back to wrongfoot the goalkeeper.
“Not two goals, I got three goals,” he said. “But it’s not about me, it’s about the team, and it’s good to win the cup.”
Reflecting on the second Premier League Cup win in as many seasons, Taylor echoed his captain’s desire to win more silverware with this group of youngsters.
“It’s a big statement,” the manager said, praising his squad for their run in the competition this season that saw them score 25 goals.
“This has only been the third year of the competition. Chelsea won it in the first year and it’s as difficult to win as the FA Youth Cup - there are six games. I thought from the first ball kicked against Swansea in this tournament we were excellent.
“Working our way through the rounds, we had a difficult group against Southampton and Liverpool and the performance for me has been key. I remember last season
against Middlesbrough, we didn’t play great, we got the result and on the night it’s obviously about the result. But I was proud of the performance today because that was a tough game.
“At 0-0 it was a really tough game, they’re a very physical team and we’re a very young team. Apart from Cole [Palmer] and Sammy [Robinson] today we were all first-years and with Under-16s on the bench.
“I’m just super-proud of the players but we’ve been working with them for a while and I’m not overly surprised. I’m aware of their quality and they’re a humble group to work with.
“Winning is great. We’re hungry to do more and make a statement.
It’s a nice habit, winning trophies and, hopefully, there’s a couple more we can secure. But we’re not kidding ourselves. We know it’s going to be really tough.
“We had some good individuals throughout this competition but it takes a team to win it. Anything we’ve done well this season is because the team have been at the heart of it. Even the boys who missed out through injury tonight.
“There’s also players like Ben Knight and Lewis Fiorini who played two games for us in this competition earlier in the season. Those lads have really contributed and the team effort we’ve shown from the beginning has been great, really pleasing.”