Former players

[Oakham Pilgrim]

Went to see Posh v Oxford last night, and before the game a number of former players were paraded on the pitch including ex-BUFC Ken Charlery and Gareth Jelleyman. Aaron McLean was with them - that brought back happy memories of Brackley as he was one of the TNT pundits there, I believe! It was nice to go to a game where I wasn't in a state of shot nerves for most of it. I'm not sure how Posh managed only to draw as they were clearly the better side. Oxford were pretty good at the dark arts.

[noughtyforties]

Posh really missed the boat last season being 4-0 up on Wendy in the the 1st leg and blowing it in S6.

I saw them 6 weeks or so against Cheaty McFraud's Stevenage and I'd have had them as very strong promotion contenders.

But thats the play offs, they are brutal. I hate them. But, they are here to stay.

[Kearsley Pilgrim]

I popped along to the Etihad Stadium last Friday night to see one of our ex-players in his head coach / manager role.

Ben Wilkinson - son of Howard - had a brief spell with us in 2011, and nowadays manages the Manchester City Youth Team.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-13401071/Man-City-coach-Ben-Wilkinson-grew-awe-dad-Howard-Leeds-English-manager-win-title-Yorkshire-stand-way-FA-Youth-Cup-glory.html

The game on Friday night was the FA Youth Cup Final : Manchester City v. Leeds United.

A very enjoyable game with both teams playing some excellent football. It was 0-0 at half-time, but City finally ran out 4-0 winners. One of the City goals – scored by Jaden Heskey (son of Emile) – wouldn’t have been out of place if scored by the first team. There’s a brief shot of Ben Wilkinson at the end of this short video of that goal.

https://x.com/EmiratesFACup/status/1789015566545539547

The referee was Dean Whitestone, who refereed our FA Cup 2nd Rd match at Rochdale in 2019.

The attendance was reported as 20,000, with Leeds United selling out their 6,500 ticket allocation. It was, though, a long way off the record attendance for an FA Youth Cup Final. I was at the 2022 FA Youth Cup Final between Manchester United and Nottingham Forest at Old Trafford which attracted a record attendance of 67,492!!

And, finally, on the subject of those FA Cup matches v. Rochdale, the Rochdale manager at that time - Brian Barry-Murphy - is now the head coach/manager of the Manchester City Under23s.

[Pilgrim86]

I was at the 2022 FA Youth Cup Final between Manchester United and Nottingham Forest at Old Trafford which attracted a record attendance of 67,492!!

Same, with Man Utd being led by both Garnacho and Mainoo, who are now regulars in the 1st team.