The Sky Blues boss wants to keep his players grounded despite the Under-18s high praise for their FA Youth Cup...
Coventry City Under-18s manager Jason Farndon believes the Under-18s deserve the plaudits for their FA Youth Cup run, but has urged his players to remain focussed and grounded.
The young Sky Blues have beaten Peterborough Northern Star, Rochdale and Bournemouth to progress to a tie against Manchester City, who beat Oxford 2-0 last night to progress.
But Farndon trusts his players to keep their feet firmly on the ground regardless of their recent cup success, but also praised the work ethic of the group to continue learning and improving.
"Lots of academies have good players but ours have a real desire," Farndon said.
"Obviously we have James Maddison taking a lot of the praise recently but there are many other good players in the squad. Ben Stevenson is playing extremely well, George Thomas is progressing well and Kyle Barnett has come back a different person this season.
"The FA Youth Cup has been maginificent so far, the way we've played has caught the eye and we've played that way on Saturdays in the league too. Obviously that gets less plaudits than under the lights on a nice pitch but the players deserve the credit for the run so far. We're really looking forward to playing against a team full of internationals and it's a great chance to see where we are.
"I am however, conscious to try and keep them grounded. There has been lots of good press and rightly so, but it's only a small part of their journey so far. But I do trust them, they are a great bunch of lads and we're looking forward to the game."
The young Sky Blues return to league action tomorrow at home to Leeds United at the Alan Higgs Centre.
It is the final game of the year for the Academy as they lie in third place in the league with a game in hand over the top two, and Farndon wants to win the game to put more pressure on Huddersfield Town and Birmingham City and to finish the year on a high.
The Under-18s coach continued: "It will be nice to finish the year off with a win against a very physical Leeds side and we'll see how it goes.
"It's nice to get the group all together on a match-day as we haven't had a game for a little while. We want to win every game but it's a huge thing for young footballers who don't usually get the chance to compete in leagues, that's what they want and they want to do well.
"We are looking to win as the top two, Huddersfield and Birmingham, play each other. We can put some pressure on them, we're all looking forward to it. It's been a busy year for the Under-18s as they've also been playing in the 21s, so they all want to win their last match before the Christmas break."