Under 18 manager 'extremely proud' despite defeat against Swansea City in the FA Youth Cup.
Paul Stancliffe reflected on his sides 2-1 defeat to Swansea City in the FA Youth Cup fourth round, and despite being disappointed reinforced how proud he was of his team to come so far.“We’re all bitterly disappointed how it’s turned out. We were one nil up at half time, and to be fair we didn’t think we’d played that well.
“We wanted to play better in the second half because we knew they were a good side and knew they’d come at us. They’ve got some great pace up front and were always a threat. It’s important we were aware of that but also that we tried to play like we know we can."
Despite Swansea being Premier League opposition and recently going on an eight match winning streak, Rovers were not without their chances and Paul Stancliffe was quick to praise the players work rate and effort for the full 90 minutes.
“If there’s one thing we know about this bunch of lads and have never questioned, it’s their work rate and their willingness to work for each other. That was evident again tonight.
“With the ball we feel we could have done a little bit better at times but we’ve never questioned the effort they put in the how hard they work for each other on the pitch.
“Our results in previous rounds say we’re a good team and we keep telling the boys that because they are. They work well together and they work well for each other.
“There’s a lot of disappointed boys tonight because they believed in themselves and they believed that they could go further.
“We gave it a really good go in the end. You have to in cup games and we had a couple of good chances that could have changed the game but it wasn’t to be.
“The boys never stopped and we’re extremely proud of them and how far they’ve come."