Anthony Hayes 'proud' of young Addicks despite FA Youth Cup disappointment

Charlton's U18s were knocked out of the FA Youth Cup on Monday night by Blackburn Rovers in a frustrating 1-0 defeat.

The Addicks’ conceded just before half time after Samuel Burns ran through and finished coolly past Nathan Harvey to give Blackburn the lead. After the match, U18s manager Anthony Hayes spoke about being knocked out despite a good performance from Charlton.

“[We're feeling] Disappointment ultimately at the minute, there’s obviously many positives we can take from the performance, we’ve dominated the ball, we’ve dominated large chucks of the game but we’ve lacked a bit of a punch in the final third in and around the box. I feel for them because they gave a lot to the game and they played with good quality, good spirit, bravery but just couldn’t find their way through.”

“I’m really proud of the players because they’ve come here in a difficult environment where there’s pressure and they’ve produced a very refined performance, but it’s just so disappointing with the performance we haven’t mustered enough clear-cut chances to score.”

Hayes believes that this experience will be good for the young players and they could learn from the defeat.

“The quality of experience has been terrific in the last 48 hours, even with the defeat.”

The U18s next game will be away to Watford in a fortnight's time in the league and Hayes and his staff will hope to pick the players back up and get back to winning ways.

“It’s part of the game but, they’ll pick themselves up, will pick them up and now our attention will turn to the league” 

[Article by Ahmed Delshad]

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