BBM:”These players will play in the next round”

Brian Barry-Murphy:



“These players will play in the next round.”

“I'm really pleased for the players that played. It was a very big occasion for them as you can imagine, so many players making their debut together, and to perform in the manner they did, win the game and put us through to the next round makes it an incredibly satisfying evening for us all.”

“I think playing in this stadium, in front of so many supporters for a game of this type, will have been an incredible buzz for the players. The circumstances of this game had been well documented in terms of how many players we have away on international duty, but for these players to put so much into tonight's game, the reward for them has to be that they get the chance to compete in the next round and see how far we can go for it, and that gives them an incredible benefit in terms of how quickly their development can be increased.”



“We do have a huge amount of belief in, I suppose, the special nature of how many players from this city are now involved in our club at First Team level, and while these players are clearly very young players, they've seen what's gone before them.”

“[Ronan] Kpakio, [Dylan] Lawlor, [Rubin and Joel] Colwill, all those guys. We want that to be an inspiration to the next cohort of players deeper down in the Academy, and to see those players then pick up the mantle and play in the way they did, it's obviously very exciting. To see the young players up close gives you a deeper insight into the qualities they have. That’s one of the big things from today.”

“We had quite a disappointing Saturday where we felt as if we had a game we should have won, and we didn't win. The feeling the following day is one of real disappointment, and as long as you keep bouncing back from that and trying to put it right, this was the next game for us. It’s going to be really competitive, and luckily for us, we had a group of players who shared that hunger for the game.”

"The energy that we displayed in front of what was a pretty big crowd for this competition, to get a crowd like that in our stadium in this weather for a game is very significant, and to play the way we did was probably a sign of how desperate were to play well.”

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Well done BBM they All should play in the next round.

They can only get better with more games.

Do they not want to progress???


Are they way to Cosy?

I noticed that Arsenal U21’s went out last year to Colchester from League 2 ( Div 4) and Arsenal lost to us and Exeter this season.

Liverpool U21’s finished Bottom of their group.

Only West Ham U21’s went through.

Clubs like Bristol Rovers ( Div 4 ) Win their group

Maybe the U21 Teams from Premier should not be in and we would get tougher opponents from the Conference in this Competition?

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I love much of BBM's footballing and management philosophy. He is not looking only at the first team but at the club as a whole. He is giving hope to players throughout the club that they can progress to the next level, whether from under 18s to the 21s or from the 21s to the first team squad. BBM rewards merit so it was no surprise to me that those who performed well today should be rewarded by starting in the next round. I think this fits with most peoples' sense of justice.

We should play the best team we have after our league game against a Chelsea team who have made more changes than others this season - but balance this out with our next league game .