A great experience

The FA Youth Cup, sponsored by E.ON
The Final, Second Leg
7.45pm, Tuesday 26 May 2009
Anfield, Liverpool FC

Hugh McAuley wistfully watched the highlights of Liverpool's 2-1 loss to Arsenal in The FA Youth Cup Final second leg on television.

“I wish that goal was worth seven,” he said, watching Lauri Dalla Valle's goal. Arsenal had scored first through Sanchez Watt and again through an own-goal from Daniel Ayala but despite losing the tie 6-2 on aggregrate, McAuley was positive about the experience.

“The boys are feeling fine,” he said. “They've been two good games from our point of view, a great learning experience for the boys. We played against an excellent Arsenal team with very good players who pass the ball very well and have scored some good goals.

“Over the course of the two games, they've worked immensely hard and they've had to. We were unfortunate with the second Arsenal goal, to basically kill that game off. But Arsenal were the better team and deserved The Youth Cup this year.”

The FA Youth Cup is a perfect stage for younger players to make their mark, and McAuley, who was in charge of the 1996 winning team which featured Michael Owen and Jamie Carragher, hopes several players this season can make the grade.

“It's very, very hard to say because the level is so high now and when you talk about the top four clubs in our Premiership, you're not talking about players to play in the Premiership, you're talking about players good enough to play in the Champions League,” McAuley said.

“That's the difference. With our football club the standard is very, very high. It's always going to be particularly hard for young players to make the big, big step up to first-team football. We've got one or two exciting prospects – Dalla Valle, Tom Ince, David Amoo, Christopher Buchtmann. I think they can play some reserve team football and do well next year.”