Sky Blues Under-21s Head Coach, John Dempster, was delighted with his sides performance in their 2-0 win over Peterborough United.
Dempster fielded a young side, which featured five players from the Under-18s in the starting eleven.
That side were tasked with competing against a strong Peterborough side, which contained players with hundreds of appearances in the Football League.
The 21s were excellent from start to finish and were well worthy of their three points, with goals coming from Justin Obikwu and Marco Rus.
Speaking after the final whistle, Dempster told how he was proud with the way his side dealt with the challenge in front of them…
Reflecting on the result…
“Really pleased,” Dempster said.
“That was up there with the best performances of the season for me. We played a really experienced Peterborough side, who had players with 100s of games around football league and the majority of them had played for the first team.
“The young players had to step up and the way they did, they were a real credit to the football club this afternoon.”
Jack Burroughs coming down from the first team…
“To have Jack Burroughs play with us and get some minutes is the icing on the cake for me.
“To have one of the academy graduates to be part of that performance and he led from example, not only in the game, but in the build-up in training. He is a shining example.”
The challenge Peterborough posed…
“Something we emphasized before the game was the caliber of player they were playing against and you were hoping they step up to the challenge.
“Sometimes young players can go the other way but the characters we have in the squad are competitive and resilient, even though some of them are under 17.
“Across the board today, every player, even the ones that came off the bench, were excellent.”
The Under-18s in the group…
“They did great today and they bring a real energy to the environment, which is something you want on a day-to-day basis.
“You have to drag them off the training ground and they’ve been really good.
“When you have the younger players step-up, that means the younger players in the younger age groups have to step up as well and they will find that challenging at times but that’s when they’re developing.
“Dan Rachel has come up and he has played two games at the CBS Arena on the bounce and has got two clean sheets and he’s really happy with that.
“They had a potent strike force with a number nine who has scored bags full for Chesterfield and the young lads dealt with him today.”
Justin Obikwu and Marco Rus getting on the scoresheet…
“It’s something Justin and Marco want to add more of to their games. Justin has been out on loan to North Leigh learning a new way and a good experience there.
“Marco had a really good loan spell out at Hereford and there’s been a lot of interest in him to go back out and for them to get on the scoresheet was fully deserved.”