"We are proud of our club" says Lewis
Assistant Manager Mickey Lewis was full of praise for the players as United came through a tough FA Cup replay at Gateshead last night. Deane Smalley’s late penalty in extra time sent United through to face Wrexham but with six players under 21 and full backs David Hunt and Tom Newey playing in an unfamiliar centre-back partnership Mickey had nothing but praise for all involved.
“We are really proud of our club today” he told Yellow Player. “It was a really young side on the field at the end and I think they dug in and did great. The senior players really helped them – tonight we had two centre halves who are both full backs. They are two experienced players and I thought those two were different class.”
“I thought it was a slow first half, which with a young inexperienced side sort of suited us a bit. Gateshead are a good footballing side but we let them have the ball in their half really. They had a couple of crosses into our box and a header from a corner but otherwise I thought we coped with them pretty well. Then in the second half you push forward a little bit more and it became more end to end.
“As the game went on I thought it got more exciting. From a manager or coach’s point of view you want it to only be exciting one way, but those lads dug in tonight and we are really proud.
“We got through and now we know that Wrexham will be another tough game for us on Monday night.”
See the full interview plus reaction from Deane Smalley and highlights in Yellow Player