Speaking in the second episode of 3in3: How City’s EDS made history, our new three-part documentary series charting the story of our Under-21s’ historic third consecutive Premier League 2 title which is published later today, Barry-Murphy pointed to the benefit of those must-win moments in his young players’ development.
The latest episode of 3in3 majors on last season’s superb 3-1 success over Chelsea at the Academy Stadium - a result that went a long way towards securing a third straight title for City.
Barry-Murphy also reflected on how the lessons learned from experiencing and coming through such a key fixture as that Chelsea game at such a young age would only ingrain belief and confidence amongst the group looking to their long-term future.
“During the previous season I’d been surprised at how good our players were in high profile games and real high stakes games,” Barry-Murphy revealed.
“There’s definite real substance to the fact that the more times we can expose our young players to playing in the high-pressure games with high pressure stakes, the more comfortable and expressive they can be in those arenas.
“For me it is such a big part of their learning journey and development.
“They are difficult games, but difficult games are the best games.
“The match with Chelsea felt like a very high-quality game where the opponents had all their best players playing, and we had all of ours available too
“I just felt they were a really good team with really good players so the technical challenge for us was high level stuff.
“To see us then come out on top in such a convincing manner at the end of what was a very tough game was such a great reward for all the boys.”
The head coach’s reflections on what was one of the most demanding – and satisfying displays of the season – was echoed by striker Will Dickson.
The 18-year-old scored 18 goals across the course of the campaign and said he felt the City youngsters thrived playing under such pressure.
“I do think the higher pressure the game the better we perform,” Dickson asserted.
“I think that shows our mentality as a team and the winning mentality that we have.”
Episode two of 3in3: How City’s EDS made history - Derby Days is available to watch from 17:00 (UK) on Tuesday, July 18 on CITY+ and Recast.
The concluding episode of 3in3: How City’s EDS made history will be released on CITY+ and Recast next week.
CITY+ AND RECAST
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