Although United’s FA Youth Cup campaign eventually came to an end at Newport last night, Head of Youth Chris Todd had plenty of praise for his side, following their 4-3 defeat in South Wales.
“I’m very proud of the lads, obviously it was an achievement to get to that round,” began Todd.
I was really impressed my players showed grit, determination and fight. To lose a goal so early was disappointing, they could have easily crumbled, but they didn’t, they stuck in there, showed that fight, and got back in to the game in the second half.
“Having come in 3-1 down, the boys were very disappointed. They stood up, and basically showed tremendous football, talent, and ability to get back into the game and push Newport to the wire. I think that was one thing that really pleased me, that we showed what quality we do have, and we were able to match them in every way, and give them an excellent cup tie.”
After levelling through a Brandon Quinn penalty in the first half, two County goals before the break threatened to derail the young Gulls. However, two Lewis Brooks strikes, either side of Newport’s eventual winner, made sure that the result remained in the balance right up until the final whistle, as Brooks went with inches of completing his hat-trick in stoppage time.
“I’ve got to give them credit. In the first half, they were in the better side, but in the second half we were. We just couldn’t get that final goal. We were unlucky at the end, but we were under no illusions that we were up against a professional side. A lot of their players have played for the first team, it goes to show how well we actually did. I was very proud of them, they should be proud of themselves, the Club is very proud of them as well, I know that, and also their parents, who cane in their numbers and offered support.”
Having already made a strong start to their league campaign, and made swift progress in the county cup, there’s still plenty for Torquay’s stars of the future to play for this season, as Chris explains.
“We’ve a lot of youngsters, first years. During the game there were seven or eight players that are in the squad and are available next season. It’s about their progress, and it’s all about their development. They’ve shown that they can step up a level, they’ve shown they’ve got the willingness and the fight to be successful and it’s just the start. We’ve got a league campaign to finish off, and hopefully we can be successful in that and also in the cup competition that we’re still in.
“I was just pleased they did themselves justice. They worked extremely hard to get to where they got to, and they showed that to everybody that was there. There were lots of clubs there, and everyone had nothing but praise for the lads, because we understand that our lads are college students, they’re not full-time scholars, but to put up the fight they showed showed tremendous ability and endeavour.”