The Sky Blues Under-18s won 2-1, after extra time against Millwall to progress to the semi-final of the Professional Development League Cup.
With the game tied after full-time, Reece Massey stepped up and slotted home his free-kick in extra-time, to fire the Sky Blues Under-18s into the final four of the PDL Cup.
Under-18s Professional Development Phase Coach, Chay Thompson, praised his side for their hard-fought performance to guide them to victory.
“It was a game that we focused on winning.” Thompson started.
“We play in the FA Youth Cup and the PDL Cup, so it was important to focus on winning the game.
“We knew it would be a different sort of game, a different challenge for the players, but they stood up to it well and it was probably the performance of the season in terms of grit, work rate, and desie which we were pleased with.
“We went a goal up when Sam Rodber put a lovely timed passed in behind for Justin Obikwu, who pulled off the shoulder of the defender a put it in the bottom corner.
“We had chances to go 2-0 up and kill the game off, but we didn’t take them and then they had a fifteen minute spell in the second half, where they dominated really.
“It was 1-1 at full-time and then we showed good character and resilience to score the winner, Reece Massey stepped up with an a really good free-kick in the bottom corner.”
Mirroring the thoughts of first-team boss Mark Robins, after their win against Reading on Saturday, Thompson hailed his side for a determined performance.
“It was up there with performance of the season, in terms of grit and desire to win the game of football.
“They’re never beaten, there’s a lot of winners in the group and if we go a goal down, we come back.
“They’ve had different types of challenges this season and they will keep running and keep going and that’s something we do focus on, hard work and desire to earn your right to play and you’ve got to do that bit right first before the other stuff.
“The fitness levels came into it, and we were fitter than them. They were cramping up and going down and we said at half time of extra-time that we could go on and score a winner because our fitness levels were superior to them, so that was pleasing.
“Isaac Moore was probably Man of the Match, he’s ran 15.8 kilometres in the game, which is phenomenal, he didn’t stop running.”
Crewe Alexandra are up next for the Under-18s, having beaten them 1-0 in the last affair earlier in the season.
Thompson assessed the Railwaymen and the threat they pose for the young Sky Blues.
“We’ll hopefully give them a footballing game, they do play football and the pitches at home are a lot better than what we played at their place.
“We’ve got to keep doing what we’re doing, keep doing what’s right for the players and keep developing, the boys have been outstanding so far this season, they’ve won 8 out of their last 10 games which is an unbelievable record, so we’ve got to keep doing what we’re doing and keep improving.”