We made a lightning start to the derby, with captain Nico O’Reilly firing in at the back post, before doubling our lead with an audacious chip from 35-yards out over Elyh Harrison in the United goal.
The young Red Devils halved the deficit through Louis Jackson with 10 minutes left on the clock, but Seb Naylor struck our third with a pinpoint free kick as City secured the points.
The victory kept us a point ahead of second-placed Sunderland, and Ben Wilkinson was proud of how his youngsters handled the occasion.
“A really positive performance,” he expressed.
“In the first half we showed really good control of the game and dominated for large periods, then half-time was just about being ready for their response, but again I was really pleased with the second half.
“I think we should have put the game to bed significantly earlier, we missed a lot of good chances to go three or four nil up.
“Obviously we didn’t, and conceded a goal from a set piece, and it can become really difficult to finish the game, but we managed that period of the game well so, all in all, it’s a pleasing day.”
City skipper, O’Reilly, took centre stage again, after scoring a sensational scorpion kick against Middlesbrough last week to seal the three points.
And the City U18s boss was really impressed with the massive impact he made.
“Two outstanding finishes, he’s on a real good run of form at the moment in terms of goal scoring, and his all-round performance,” he said of O’Reilly.
“He’s in a really positive mindset and attitude, he is showing great physicality to the game, and I’m really pleased for him that he got his rewards again today.”
After Jackson headed in to get a goal back for United, Wilkinson didn’t want a repeat of the Manchester derby clash earlier in the season where we surrendered a two-goal lead.
However, he was pleased with his players’ response this time round: “Football often puts you in those situations and we are disappointed to concede, but I thought we did have a really good reaction to that.
“We didn’t sit deep and defend the box or give away numerous chances or balls into our box, we stayed aggressive in the press, and had moments when we could stay on the ball and show quality.
“So, it’s really disappointing to concede but I thought the way we reacted to that was really pleasing.”
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With Sunderland beating Everton 4-1, next weekend’s clash of the top two is set up to be intense affair with a lot lying on the game with one point separating the teams. Wilkinson explained that his side must treat the fixture like any other.
“Obviously there’s probably more importance on this game, but there’s 24 games in this league.
“But for us, all we’ll be thinking about is winning the game, whatever it looks like at the end of the day, all we can do is concentrate on winning the game.
“It’s three points and it’s just another game to prepare for look at your position where we can exploit them and hopefully we are going to get a good result next week and just concentrate on winning the game.”
