Jimmy Unwin hails Chelsea-conquering Cambridge United Under-18s side as among the strongest he has worked with

For many, Cambridge United Under-18s’ 1-0 win over their Chelsea counterparts in the fourth round of the FA Youth Cup last Thursday would have been viewed as a massive surprise.

After all, the Premier League side’s potential stars of the future arrived at the Abbey Stadium as part of a club that are nine-time winners of the competition – only Manchester United boast a better record.

But as far as U’s boss Jimmy Unwin is concerned, he was far from shocked to see his young players record one of the academy’s most famous ever results.

Unwin said: “I’m really pleased for the boys. They work so hard as a group and they deserve all the plaudits they’ve been getting.

“Yes, we put together a game-plan that we thought could work, but that means nothing if the lads don’t go out there and execute it.

“We just said to them before the game to go out there and play the game, not the occasion, and to ignore the badge on the opposition’s shirt.

“It was about keeping them pacified and relaxed so we didn’t change anything. There was the usual banter and music in the changing room, it was just like any other game.

“You could see it in them that they were ready for it, I didn’t really need to do anything in terms of a team talk.

“You need a bit of lady luck on nights like that and we scored from a set-piece that we’d worked on, which is always pleasing for a coach, but overall we’ve got some very good players and it didn’t surprise me we won the game.”

Such a famous victory has resulted in some supporters suggesting that this crop of youngsters is potentially the strongest the club has produced for some time.

Comparisons such as that are always tough to make, yet Unwin is confident enough to claim that this group are the best he has had under his charge.

“From a personal point of view this is my fifth year back at the club and I think it’s probably the strongest we’ve been,” he added.

“It’s always tough to look back and compare with the past. This club has produced the likes of Trevor Benjamin, Luke Gutteridge, Josh Coulson and Michael Morrison, who has just come back, down the years.

“But what I would say is that this is a very good group with a real strong team culture. They’re united and they manage themselves in a lot of ways.”

The concern now is that other clubs will take notice of the victory over Chelsea and attempt to cherry pick some of those players.

However, Unwin is unconcerned, opting instead to focus on the job in hand.

He said: “We’re not an academy that shouts about what we’re doing over social media, we don’t work like that.

“We’ve lost players down the years like Louis Flower, who came off the bench for Chelsea against us.

“There’s always scouts at our games, we’re aware of that and we expect it because we’ve got good players.

“But for us we’ll keep doing what we do and try to produce players that can benefit Mark (Bonner) in the first team.”

United will host Sheffield Wednesday in the next round on Wednesday, February 8. A win would put them into the quarter-finals for the first time in the club’s history.