Ryan's breakthrough aims

Ryan Tunnicliffe spoke exclusively to Inside United ahead of the campaign..

You hit top form last May. Did you not really want the season to end?
When I came back from Peterborough, I wasn’t in the best of shape. Obviously, I didn’t play as much as I would have liked there and it took me a few games to get back into the swing of things to get match-fit. It was only in the last couple of games that I could really show what I was capable of doing.

You mentioned last year that training at Peterborough was tiring so was that draining, especially when you didn’t get to play?
I don’t think I was match-fit. Training-wise, it’s a different type of fitness. When I came back and played in the Reserves, I started to get properly match-fit towards the end of the season. Like you say, I didn’t want it to come to an end as I’d started to play well.

And you scored at Chelsea – was that your first goal for the Reserves?
Yes and the first of the season as I didn’t score at Peterborough. It was a bit of scruffy finish though.

How pleasing was it to win that silverware with the Reserves?
It was good. United, as a club, want to win everything we enter and to beat City in the final and also be crowned the best Reserves team is a great achievement for everyone.

It was clear that winning at the Etihad Stadium in that Senior Cup final meant something to everybody..
After the way we [the first team] lost the league, we [the Reserves] were the next team to go there and it was nice. They wanted to brag a bit but we had a lot more local lads in our side and it made a lot of difference. I think we showed that we wanted it more.