Bluebirds boss Brian Barry-Murphy spoke to the press after a young City side beat Arsenal U21s 3-1 to progress to the knockout phase of the Vertu Trophy.
“I'm really pleased for the players that played.” Brian began. "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."
Brian has not been afraid to field youthful players over the course of the season, and tonight was no different, with five City youngsters making their senior debuts in the starting XI and a further three off the bench.
He said: “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.”