Joe Roberts praises togetherness and character after semi-final win
Swansea City Under-17s coach Joe Roberts praised the togetherness and character of the young side after they progressed to the Professional Development League Cup final following a dramatic 4-2 victory against Cheltenham Town.
Kaven Bloniarczyk gave the Swans the lead after just seven minutes, before Cheltenham Town missed a chance to equalise when goalkeeper Tom Wright saved a penalty.
But Cameron Walters headed in a leveller five minutes from time, and it proved enough to send the tie to an additional half-hour when Swansea's Harvey Gray was denied from the spot deep into stoppage time.
Charlie Croose then put Cheltenham ahead in extra-time, but Callum Jones struck twice in the space of barely a minute to turn the tie on its head.
The drama was not done. Cheltenham were awarded another penalty, but Tom King struck the outside of the post, and Swansea swept up the other end for Jones to complete his treble and book their place in the final against Luton Town.
"It's what these sorts of competitions bring and what they offer the boys in terms of a game with added consequence or reward, they're like no other games in our games programme," said Roberts.
"It was under the lights, there was a good crowd, the boys have been excited all week for it. It's not a regular game, and I think the boys thrive off these situations.
"The message before extra-time was that we've been here before, and that we need to take Cheltenham to a place they might not want go to.
"I thought we did that at times, we controlled the game really well in key moments where it needed that that bit of composure and calmness.
"It was quite an emotional 10 minutes, where we missed a penalty in the last kick of the game, it goes to extra time and they go 2-1 up.
"We had to show that grit and character to get back into it, and they did.
"We're bringing together players from three squads, so it can be tough to get that togetherness and cohesion with them. But it's what we want to do, we want to bring everyone together."
Luton Town await the young Swans in the final showpiece, and Roberts is looking forward to facing another new side outside of the Professional Development League programme.
"This compeittion throws you opportunities of playing teams not in your usual games programme," he added.
"It's exciting, and it composes a different challenge but what we will do, is we'll prep exactly how we usually do. We'll help the boys find solutions and we'll try layer it so we're as prepared as possible for whatever Luton throw at us."