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Manchester City sealed a 3-2 win over current Premier League 2 leaders Liverpool at the Academy Stadium in the EDS’ first game of 2018.
Under 17 England World Cup winning ‘keeper Curtis Anderson made his debut for the EDS, while Nabil Touaizi and Felix Nmecha also featured, with Under 18s’ skipper Eric Garcia on the bench.
“It’s a credit to the older ones in the squad,” Davies explained to ManCity.com after the match.
“Often when younger players come in we just talk about them and against Liverpool they did ever so well.
“Nabil [Touaizi] was asked to do something a little bit different in terms of how we were pressing and Felix [Nmecha] then came off the bench and got his goal so I’m really pleased with him.
“But without the likes of Joel [Latibeaudiere], Matty [Smith], Jacob [Davenport] and such – they give the younger players the platform and the encouragement and help when they come up.
“With the young lads getting opportunity, which will always be the case here, we keep pushing that conveyor belt of talent and we have some real genuine lads here who not only want to do well for themselves but dig in for each other too – that was really great to see.”
After a tough string of results at the back end of 2017, Davies is delighted with the changes and improvements he saw in his squad against the Merseyside visitors.
“When it got tough the team stuck it out, and when that happened in the first half of the season in 2017 we didn’t always do that so well and we didn’t always have the answers, but against Liverpool there was a big change and a shift in us and we did have the answers,” the development boss added.
“Obviously we were playing a team who are doing well, have a good structure about them and some good players.
“I thought we played well but we weathered the storm at times – amongst our good passages of play we had to stand by each other and fight together a little.
“At points where we could have crumbled we didn’t and that was due to a big part of our spirit and the lads’ togetherness.”
