“It’s just incredible!” – Under-21s skipper Abbott savours winning feeling
Mon 27 May 2024, 23:04|
Tottenham Hotspur
Under-21s captain George Abbott hailed the team’s consistency after we were crowned Premier League 2 champions at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday.
Having finished first after the 20-game league phase of the season, a new format for 2023/24 meant we had to enter a play-off system involving the top 16 teams to determine the overall winners.
We had to dig in and go again – but thankfully, after seeing off Aston Villa, Liverpool and Chelsea in gruelling ties, we were able to summon one last push to get over the line, defeating Sunderland 3-1 in Sunday’s play-off final in front of over 4,000 fans at our world-famous N17 home.
Midfielder George, who started skippering the side midway through the campaign, was delighted that we were able to keep up the good form we’ve shown throughout the season to be crowned champions.
“It’s unbelievable – we’ve worked on this all season, we’ve been consistent, we’ve won games and we’ve shown here in the final that we can win things,” smiled the 18-year-old, one of several young players who jetted off to Australia to feature for the first team against Newcastle United in between last weekend’s semi-final against Chelsea and the final opposite Sunderland.
“We didn’t really want to settle just for being top of the league, we wanted to take it into the play-offs as well and do the same thing. I think it really benefitted us in terms of having a lot of our fans behind us, backing us and supporting us. Their support all season has been incredible, especially the ones who turn up to Stevenage and the away games all the time – we really appreciate all the support that they give us.”
After a brace from Premier League 2 Player of the Season Will Lankshear, George added his own name to the scoresheet in stoppage time, before Timur Tuterov netted a consolation for the Black Cats.
“We felt like we were kind of dominating,” he continued. “They’re a good side, we’ve played them four times now and they’ve given us something to play against every single time but that second goal from Will was really helpful to cement our lead and we were able to see it out. It was an unbelievable feeling to score myself as well. I don’t really score that much but when I do I’m always happy to score and it’s just a great feeling. It doesn’t get much better, especially in front of the fans we had. It’s just incredible!”
