Eric Kinder on the away win
Youth boss Eric Kinder gave us his reaction to the away win at Shrewsbury on Saturday.
"The intention was to go down there with next season's side for this because the second years have left now," he explained. "Unfortunately four of the new intake were involved in a cup semi-final for a club team and that meant we had to play Brandon [Gwinnutt] and Jack [Lynch].
"We played very well ... which is frustrating after what happened on Wednesday night. We took our chances and Kyle [Dempsey] scored the perfect hat-trick. All three of them were terrific goals.
"Connor Thomson was outstanding at right back and his performance has earned him a place in the Cumberland Cup side for tonight. He doesn't come in full time until next year and he'll already have played in two cup finals by then, which is great for him.
"He played the ball into the box for Dempsey's first goal on 13 minutes. He brought it down on his chest and volleyed it in, and it was a very, very good finish.
"The same combination brought us the second goal. Connor played in a deep cross and Kyle met it with his head. It was one of those where it hits the underside of the bar and drops down just behind the line. Fortunately the linesman was in a good position to confirm it had gone in.
"Our third goal was a Jack Lynch penalty just after half time and it was comfortable for us after that."
"The goal we gave away was a poor one," he admitted. "Lewis [Brass] misjudged the cross, it went over his head and their lad had the simple task of tapping it in on 69 minutes.
"Kyle Dempsey wrapped it up with a really good individual goal with two minutes left to play. He picked the ball up on the right hand side and went past two players, nutmegged the centre half then bent it round the keeper with his left foot.
"It was a terrific performance for the last game of the season and that's exactly what I asked for. We wanted to get three more points to finish it all off in the right way.
"We've got two more friendlies for next year's side before we let them all go away for summer. We're going to play Perth Academy from Australia and the Cumberland under 18's. We'll play an under 16 team against Perth and the team for next year against the Cumberland under 18s to bring the curtain down on the season.
"Overall, I think we've had a decent season. I'm a bit disappointed with where we ended up in the league. We lost silly games and our position probably doesn't reflect how well we've played.
"To get to the final of the Youth Alliance Cup was brilliant, but it was frustrating not to win. We should have been well in front in the first half but, if you look at it overall, then the youth side of the club has had a very good season.
"Mark Gillespie, Mark Beck, David Symington, Brad Potts, Josh Todd and now Alex Salmon have all made their debuts for the first team. Along with the national final I don't think it gets much better than that. It would have been really nice to win the final but it's better to lose a game like that than not get there at all."
United - Brass, Thomson (McEvoy), Lovett, Scott, Gwinnutt, Hammell, Dempsey, Lynch, Hodgson (Chisholm), Blackburn (Elliott), Brough. Subs - Parker.
