Tony McAndrew warning for Aston Villa's FA Youth Cup Final kids

Mar 10 2008

TONY McAndrew has warned his Villa youth team their task is far from complete as they look to advance to the FA Youth Cup Final for the third time in seven seasons.

Nathan Delfouneso scored Villa's goal before Chelsea substitute Adam Phillip levelled three minutes from time on Friday night to set up an intriguing Villa Park semi-final second leg a week on Wednesday.

McAndrew said: "There's still a lot of football in this tie and that sets it up for the second-leg at Villa Park. Hopefully the fans will turn out in numbers for that game."

Villa were praised by McAndrew for their approach at Stamford Bridge which earned them a deserved draw.

"The general message to the players was that they'd worked so hard to get to this stage and not to waste it", McAndrew said. "We talked about not freezing all week and I told them to relax.

"We know we can play, but we've still got to do the nitty gritty and I think that's what we did in the second-half. We put them under a lot of pressure right from the first whistle."

McAndrew believes the outcome was about right.

"On reflection it was probably a fair result. I think Chelsea gave us a little bit of a chasing in the first-half. We didn't really start well and I don't think we handled the occasion early on.

"But fair play to the lads, they stuck at the task. Second half I thought we were terrific."