Jamie Donley: “Journey to the final has been good... but we won’t get complacent”
Wed 03 May 2023, 18:35|
Tottenham Hotspur
Jamie Donley says our Under-18s “are in a good place” as we look to complete an unprecedented League Cup double at youth team level on Thursday night.
Hot on the heels of lifting the Under-17 Premier League Cup with a thumping victory over Nottingham Forest at the City Ground a fortnight ago, Stuart Lewis’ young side heads to Villa Park to take on Aston Villa in the Under-18 version of the tournament, looking to make it back-to-back trophy wins.
Having beaten Villa at home and away in the league already this term, a third victory would be the icing on the cake of what has been a terrific season for our young scholars.
And while he emphasised that there’s no complacency in the camp whatsoever, forward Jamie said the players are relishing the challenge of competing for another piece of silverware in a high-profile Premier League stadium.
Speaking to SPURSPLAY, where Thursday night’s game will be televised live (kick-off 7pm UK), Jamie explained: “The team is in a very good place at the moment. Obviously we won the Under-17s cup a few weeks ago and I think that’s given us more experience to now go and hopefully win another trophy, which would be very good for this team.
Going into Thursday and knowing everyone wants that feeling again, I think it will drive us even more.
“The experience we had at Nottingham Forest will help a lot. Winning a trophy is a very good feeling and as a player you want that type of feeling so, going into Thursday and knowing everyone wants that feeling again, I think it will drive us even more.
“It’s very good to get the experience of playing in another Premier League stadium as well. Hopefully we won’t be nervous but playing in a big stadium is always a good experience for us. We try to play good football, we like to play out from the back and in the final third we’ve got very clever players who can create chances and score goals, so we’ll be giving our all to do that again on another big stage on Thursday night.”
Jamie has split his time between playing for the Under-18s and Under-21s this term and has made some important contributions to our Under-18 Premier League Cup campaign. He really ignited his season with a goalscoring performance in a big win at Charlton Athletic in the group stage in November and played a key part in the only goal of the game as we secured an excellent 1-0 triumph away to Manchester City in February’s quarter-final.
“I think the journey has been good in this competition,” he reflected. “We’ve had some tough games, in the quarter-final we had Manchester City, beat them 1-0 and beat Sheffield United 1-0 in the semi-finals, so two good performances and two clean sheets as well, which will bring us nicely into the final.
“Winning those games was very good but we won’t get complacent – we’ll still go into Thursday like any other game, stay focused, play our game, play in our style and try to have a good performance and win.”
Limited tickets will be available at the stadium on the night for those wishing to come and support the team.
Alternatively, you can watch live on SPURSPLAY from anywhere (kick-off 7pm UK) – find out more and sign up today.
