'Proud' McCormack hails his 'ruthless' Luton U18s as they dismantle Blues in FA Youth Cup

A ‘proud’ Luton U18s manager Alan McCormack hailed his side’s ‘ruthless’ display as they put Birmingham City to the sword with an outstanding 6-0 FA Cup third round win at St Andrew’s on Monday night.

The Hatters had travelled up to the Midlands full of confidence ahead of the tie, having won 13 out of 14 EFL South-East Youth Alliance matches this term to sit well clear at the top of the table.

However, having not got past this stage of the competition since 2016 and going up against a Blues side who ply their trade in the U18 Professional Development League North Division, then not even the hardiest of Town supporters would have expected the systematic dismantling that followed.

Oli Heron and Zack Nelson had put the visitors 2-0 up by the break, before Nelson doubled his tally just 20 seconds after the restart.

Joe Johnson then finished a sweeping move as Nelson completed his hat-trick from the spot, an own goal making it six, and speaking to the club’s official website afterwards, McCormack said: “We were good in the first half without being brilliant and spectacular, and how we wanted to play.

"Birmingham were looking to cause us a few problems in areas which we know is always going to happen against a diamond but at half-time we said to them about being respectful but being more aggressive.

"We wanted to really go after them, press them, triggers to press and how we work on that, we came out in the second half and we were bang on what we wanted to do.

"We knew what our strengths were and our weaknesses were but the goal changed things.

“The next goal, especially at two-nil, is always a game-changer.

"We got it early and then continued to step on and go through the gears and became the team we want them to be.

"We want them to be ruthless, we want them to be relentless and we want them to be non-stop all over the pitch, no matter what minute, no matter what score.

"We want another one, another one and then another one after that.

“It's the way we play and it’s the way we do things.

"I’ve said from the start, this will be a year and for some two years like they’ve never had before.

"We have an academy department now where a lot of ex-players are in so we know the game, we know how hard it is.

"I use the three R’s all the time – ruthless, relentless and resilient.

"You have to be that 24/7 as a pro, every moment of the day and the ruthless side of it will come out.

"The work we have done and the players have done, they bought into it from the start at pre-season.

"It is paying dividends now and you can see the performances, they know what they’re doing, they understand the game and they’re able to withstand good competition from good opposition and can step up more gears which is the pleasing stuff.

"I’m really proud of them.”

Although Luton found the net six times with an awesome display of attacking football, particularly in the second period, only denied more by an impressive goalkeeping performance from Bradley Mayo, McCormack felt they should have triumphed by a greater margin.

With Town now at home to either Spurs or QPR in the fourth round, he added: “I still feel like we could have had more.

"In the first half we had two or three really good chances where we didn’t shoot quickly enough or didn’t slide in and getting grass on their backside as they say.

"Those are the little areas we will look at and go through with them and then try and improve on that.

"All in all though, I’m really proud.

"We focused on this game as being just a normal game, it’s a game of football.

"The objectives are the same, the rules are the same, it’s 11 vs 11, take all the distractions away from it, the stadium, the fans, we wanted to take as much as that distraction away from them as possible so they could focus on the game.

”They are young boys, they are learning so we felt that would be key to take the distractions away so they could go out and focus on the game and they have done it very well.”