Jimmy Unwin praises Cambridge United’s fantastic journey in FA Youth Cup after spot-kick exit to Nottingham Forest
Jimmy Unwin has reflected on a “fantastic journey” for Cambridge United under-18s after their run in the FA Youth Cup was brought to an end on penalties against Nottingham Forest.
The U’s youngsters produced an impressive display against the Category 1 academy, which is two tiers above the hosts, but were just unable to find a breakthrough.
As the match finished 0-0 after extra time, Forest produced a clinical display in the shootout to win 5-3 to advance to the quarter-finals.
There was a great deal of pride in the way that United played at the Abbey Stadium but they ran into a keeper in Aaron Bott in inspired form for Forest.
“We always pick the positives out of any performance, whether we win, lose or draw. I don’t see that as a loss, if I’m honest,” said Unwin, United’s professional development phase lead coach.
“I see it as a positive in every sense of the occasion. They rose to the occasion, we had lots of territory in their final third, we had lots of corners where we probably needed to take one, the boys showed bravery to work on the corner routines that we do. On another day, they score from one of those corner routines.
“From open play, we carved them open a couple of times and on another night the boys take those chances.
“For this group, you don’t have to fire them up to be honest. It’s just a case of looking at the positives for them, looking at areas we need to develop, and maybe the area we need to develop is being clinical in key times.
“Their goalkeeper is probably man of the match for them with the saves he made. He made one from Glenn (McConnell) in the first half where he tipped it to the side and then made a really good save from Kai (Yearn) when he broke through the backline, and Kai’s two free kicks.
“On another night, they go in. It’s just football unfortunately.”
An element of the game that stood out was the intelligence of United's play.
They found solutions to adapt to both the game and the conditions as it went on and, to a player, read the game and communicated impressively.
“They are an intelligent group,” said Unwin. “I don’t actually do too much managing the group and problem solving for them.
“I let them do the problem solving because they are such a good group of boys who all have a voice, all respect each other, all allow others to speak.
“They changed the way they played tonight, the boys did, and went a little bit more direct at times to get us into territory.
“When they got in those areas, I thought some of our combination play was excellent. It’s just, on the night, we didn’t take those chances.”
It brings to an end United’s run in the FA Youth Cup at the fifth round stage.
On their way, they have defeated Corinthian Casuals, Southend United, Oxford United and Leeds United.
Two of those, against Southend and Oxford were on penalties, and the stand-out win was the success over Category 1 academy Leeds.
“It’s just been a fantastic journey,” said Unwin. We’ve had penalties, we’ve had extra-time, we’ve had a brilliant display against Leeds which I think was probably one of the most complete displays from the group against a Category 1 opposition.
“We take loads out of it.
“There are loads of positives to come out of it. Within those games, I feel like we had the best players on the pitch in every game which is more important for us than actually the team performance. We’re not developing a team, we’re developing individuals to go into the first team so that’s more pleasing for me anyway.”
It also shows that the whole academy and youth development structure at United is healthy and heading in a good direction.
“We’ve got boys in there like Reece Hipwell and George Hoddle who are both under-16s so they’ve got another two years playing in the youth cup, so they will have had three years under their belt,” added Unwin.
“Underneath it we’ve got a fantastic group of under-16s. The football club are really good at recruitment now, we also look after the boys in the sense that the coaching programme is very good.
“And the boys are just fantastic young men.”
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