Rob Etherington: It was a professional performance

Leeds United Under-18s progressed to the fourth round of the FA Youth Cup on Thursday evening against Bristol City Under-18s, thanks to a late winner from Carrick Njinko.

In a hard-fought contest, the young Whites were victorious courtesy of Njinko’s 77th minute winner, who half-volleyed at the back post to give the visitors the lead late on.

After the game, Lead Coach Rob Etherington said: “I’m really pleased with the performance. I thought it was a professional performance from us and I think we played the game well.

“I think it's a good one for the group moving forward and we can go again together in the next round. We can be even better than we were today because I still think there's lots of areas where the lads can improve to give an even better performance.”

Following this win, United’s Under-18s will host Swansea City Under-18s in the next round of the competition. “We’re really confident,” Etherington commented on the draw.

“We've got a lot of belief in our Under-18s and we have players who play in the Under-21s or train with the first team, so we've got full belief in our academy and our young players. Whatever the opposition, we'd go into it with full confidence and full belief that we can go and impose ourselves and make our way to the next round.”

On the nature of the FA Youth Cup: “I’ve said previously that in the normal games programme we don't we don't prioritise winning, although we want the players to win - it's important that they have a winning mentality.

“The Youth Cup is a little bit different, we go into it with an intention to win. We want the players to win and we prepare to win.

“We go into every game with a lot of belief and we’re Leeds United, so we look to impose ourselves on whoever we play.”