BRU PRAISE FOR ETH AS KIDS GET THEIR SHOT

BRUNO Fernandes believes Erik ten Hag showed trust in Ethan Wheatley by handing him a debut for United against Sheffield United, but he reiterated the other three youngsters on the bench who were unused substitutes are valued and have bright futures ahead.

Wheatley, Harry Amass, Habeeb Ogunneye and Louis Jackson have all featured heavily for the Under-18s this season and they played a youth cup final on Tuesday night.

They played 45 minutes each at Leigh Sports Village and Ten Hag designed that to allow them to play in the final but to also keep them fresh for the firstteam squad.

United’s squad has been ravaged by injuries this season and youngsters have regularly supplemented the senior squad, just like at Wembley last weekend.

Wheatley, Amass, Ogunneye and Jackson made the bench for the semi-final of the FA Cup on Sunday evening and they were in the squad again on Wednesday night, just under 24 hours after helping their junior U18 teammates lift their second trophy of the season.

“It’s probably an amazing feeling for him. I’ve been a kid myself, although I didn’t come through an academy to play for the first team like he’s doing,” Fernandes told MUTV when asked about Wheatley.

“He should be really proud, I hope he had family and friends here today to see it because it’s a moment not to forget.

“I hope for the future he can get more chances if we keep doing the same things because if he got the chance – we can talk about injuries and everything – but it’s because the manager trusts him, not just because of the injuries we’ve had.

“Many of them [the youngsters] have been on the bench and they still haven’t had their chance, so if he plays today, it’s because the manager has trust in him.

“I think at the end of the game I got a little too erratic to give him [Wheatley] a goal because, like I said, he’s a young kid coming through the academy and I know the moment is massive for him

“Getting a goal in his first appearance would have been massive. I couldn’t give the assist, but I tried.”

SHEFFIELD United manager Chris Wilder felt Harry Maguire went down far too easily when earning his side a penalty in their match at Old Trafford.

The Blades were defeated 4-2 at Old Trafford, despite Jayden Bogle scoring the opening goal and United trailing 2-1 at the break. Maguire scored the equaliser to make it 1-1 on the brink of half-time and later won a penalty on the hour mark.

Bruno Fernandes made no mistake from the spot and then doubled his team’s lead to make it 3-2. Rasmus Hojlund then returned to the scoresheet, netting United’s fourth with five minutes left.

However, Wilder believes the penalty should not have been awarded and criticised Maguire for going down ‘easily’. He said: “For a big lad from Sheffield, I thought he went down pretty easily and I said that to him at the time.

“But yet again, I thought some decisions went against us.

“I thought the lead up to their equaliser, I don’t know where Auston Trusty is meant to go, is he meant to disappear?

“I think that’s a real soft decision as well, Bruno [Fernandes] goes down holding his head, referee blows his whistle straight away, Cameron Archer takes two minutes with a head injury to get recognised.

“So, little bits like that we’ve come to accept and get on with.

“Some little decisions in there but we have to look at ourselves.

“Some poor goals going into the back of our net and you can’t afford to do that anywhere in this division.”