McAuley seeks improvement

Last updated : 16 January 2009 By Al Campbell
The under 18's coach was pleased to see his side progress past Bristol Rovers on penalties after a 2-2 draw last night but warned them they'd need to play better if they want to beat Chelsea in round five.

"It was one of those games where the play was going to be quite end to end, and as a result we conceded two poor goals," said McAuley.

"We never passed the ball in the way we know we can - the play was quite sloppy at times and there were a lot of careless passes.

"I'm disappointed about a lot of aspects of our performance. We couldn't keep hold of our lead and we failed to keep the game simple - we gave the ball away very carelessly, but we'll learn from that.

"But the good thing was that the spirit was there and we kept playing even when it went into extra time. We've got a lot to work on, though - we haven't played for four or five weeks now and I think that showed a lot against a good Bristol Rovers side.

"It's good to get through this game and we're really looking forward to the match against Chelsea in the next round now - we have a lot of work to do to prepare for that."