OXFORD United’s young history makers are confident they can take on anyone after setting up an FA Youth Cup quarter final away to Manchester City.
A 3-0 win over Leeds United at the Kassam Stadium gave the Under-18s safe passage into the last eight.
Enrique Tiamuna opened the scoring, before Gatlin O’Donkor grabbed a brace for the U’s, who were already playing in the fifth round for the first time since club records began.
Captain George Franklin said: “I’m a bit speechless to be honest, what a night.
“From doing all the tactics about them and learning about them, the game plan we set out as a team, I thought we completed that and more.
“The key thing that got us the result is the togetherness in the squad.”
The victory was made more impressive as Leeds’ academy has a Category 1 status, the highest status, while the U’s are a Category 3 academy.
“We know our quality and what we’ve got within our boys, we weren’t fazed that they were Cat 1 and they’re a big club but that didn’t faze us one bit.
“Being a local lad and at the club for about nine years now, captaining the side to a quarter final and making more history is unbelievable.”
On star striker O’Donkor, who has scored five goals during the run to the quarter finals, Franklin said: “Gats gets a lot of praise as he should, but it’s a team that’s together.
“There’s 11 players on that pitch that put in the performance of their lifetime.
“Gats gives us a massive boost, the qualities he has as a player.
“It’s a team thing and Gats helps the team.”
Aidan Elliott-Wheeler was a constant thorn in the Leeds defence and was unlucky not get his name on the scoresheet due to some good goalkeeping by Darryl Ombang.
“To come this far in the Youth Cup, we’re creating history for the club,” said Elliott-Wheeler.
“We’ve come into the game knowing we want to go aggressive and put them under pressure.
“If we put them under enough pressure, then you force mistakes and get chances out of it.
“We believe on our day we can beat anyone and the performance shows how good we really are – bring on City.”