Lawrence: It's been a true team effort

Our young Reds won three pieces of silverware to round off a terrific season, winning the U18 Premier League North, the U18 Premier League Cup and, finally, an U18 Premier League national final.

The latter came on Tuesday evening at Stamford Bridge, as we successfully beat Chelsea (winners of the U18 Premier League South) 2-1 thanks to strikes from Ethan Wheatley and Ethan Williams.

After the trophy was held aloft following the full-time whistle, Lawrence spoke to MUTV's Ben Ibson to reflect on a campaign that will long be remembered.

"I'm very proud," began the 37-year-old. "If you look at the season as a whole, it has genuinely has been an amazing achievement for everyone involved."

"Whether you are a coach, a member of staff, all the support team around the squad, all of the players, it has just been one of those memorable years.

"It's a big credit to everybody and a big well done."

It's been a season full of progress for many of our Academy talents, who celebrated wildly come the full-time whistle at Stamford Bridge, with many individuals taking part in first-team training or fulfilling roles in Erik ten Hag's matchday squads due to the senior side's continuing injury problems.

Lawrence admitted that high-pressure games like the final, away at Chelsea, will only aid the development within his young squad.

"That's essentially what the lads and the players are aspiring to do," added Lawrence, when asked how vital these experiences can be.

"When you play in these types of games and you come to Stamford Bridge, to experience that type of game whether you win, lose or draw, what you want the players to do is to get a feel and a real flavour for it.

"They should be wanting more and they should be wanting to play at this level in these kind of arenas.

"The more experiences we can give them in these high-level games, the better they are going to be for it. So they should definitely be coming away from this wanting to achieve more."

Citing how much he has enjoyed working with our Under-18s as a collective, Lawrence also praised the hard work that is often missed by crucial members of his backroom staff.

"It's an amazing achievement by the players and working with them on the pitch every day, it has been a genuine pleasure," he said.

"Obviously it has been challenging working with young players, and there is a lot going on in their lives and in their football careers, which you have to try and help them with.

"They have just been a genuine joy to work with and I think what has been really nice is that it has been a group effort: lots of players all playing their part in lots of different games across the season with coming in and out of the squad in these games.

"It is even more satisfying because the team has achieved it, which makes it so nice."