Nottingham Forest Under-18s have been told to use the hurt of losing in the FA Youth Cup final to spur them on in their drive to have successful careers.
A controversially-awarded penalty proved to be a turning point in the game as Warren Joyce’s Reds fell 3-1 to Manchester United at Old Trafford. Josh Powell had drawn the visitors level before the break, only for a spot-kick to be given against Zach Abbott for a foul which replays showed clearly took place outside the area.
Alejandro Garnacho fired home, and added a second to wrap up the victory. But the final scoreline did not reflect the visitors’ performance, which came in front of a record 67,000 crowd featuring almost 6,000 away fans.
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“The way you conduct yourself in losing and winning tells you a lot about the person. I thought we conducted ourselves well after the game,” said Joyce, who spent almost a decade at United.
“If you’re playing football, you want to win. I told them that when I was at Manchester United, we won six out of seven grand finals. And the one we lost, I can remember better than the others, we stood on the side of the pitch and had to clap Chelsea on the stage. Out of those players, there was one guy looking at his losers’ medal, the others didn’t bother looking at it - all the others became millionaires.
“It’s more important that they have a 15-year career in the game. They have got to remember this, drive themselves on and make sure they have a better feeling than they’ve had this time.
“The standard is set every day. If the standard is for them to be first-team players, they’ve got to have a really high standard every day.
“We try to do that from the first day of them coming into the football club. Raise the bar, challenge them, get them thinking outside the box and really pushing and driving themselves consistently for every minute of every day.
“If they do that, they’ve a chance of being a footballer. If they don’t, they’ve only themselves to blame.
“We’re looking for players to maximise their talent. Understand what it is to be the best they can. Sacrifice themselves for the team.
“It’s got to be a way of life, if you’re a footballer. It’s not a job. They’ve got to put everything into it to maximise their talent. They are the principles and the standards we try to put in place.
“It will be a massive learning experience for them to play in front of that kind of atmosphere, which is something you can’t manufacture. I thought they coped with it pretty well.”
