The City youngsters fell to a 1-0 loss at Carrington Road on Saturday morning despite registering more shots on target than the hosts within our 56% possession.
Divine Mukasa, Christian Dunbar-McDonald and Matty Warhurst all had a handful of chances to equalise for City but it was defender Louis Jackson’s chipped effort that saw United extend their position at the Under-18 Premier League North summit.
Despite the result not being a positive one, Wilkinson, who is in his third season of coaching City’s Under-18s side, was full of praise at the amount of high quality football and development he saw from his players.
“I really enjoyed the game from a youth coach point of view,” began Wilkinson.
“It was a proper game, two good teams and a game that was decided on real fine margins. In terms of our performance I think we can reflect and be relatively pleased.
“I thought we had really good control in the first half, we had good intent about us with and without the ball and I thought we tried to do the right things we just couldn’t create quite enough.
“And then the second half of the game was decided on real fine margins. I thought each side had two or three good moments, they took their and we didn’t take ours. It’s a hard defeat to take but in terms of a performance point of view and attitude I think the players can hold their heads high.
“We knew it was going to be a tough game but like I said the performance was pretty good, the attributes of the players was good it just probably feels worse than it normally would because we chasing a team this season rather than the other way round. So overall it’s a hard one to take but plenty of positives as well.”
United now move 14 points clear of Wilkinson’s side who are third with 22 points but do have a game in hand over our rivals.
And with City still competing in the Under-18 and Under-18 Premier League Cup as well as the FA Youth Cup, fixtures are coming thick and fast for the youngsters, starting with Derby County at home on Saturday 27 January.
And Wilkinson explained that his team will use the United performance to make minor adjustments ahead of the next league fixture.
“I was really pleased with the performance so it’s more a case of reinforcing that with the players, and take the learning from the game,” said Wilkinson.
“Every game is worth three points and the performance will dictate on how we reflect on these games. We just have to go again on Monday and reflect on this and prepare the best we can for Derby.”
