George Boateng has praised Aston Villa’s youngsters for a “brave” performance in their 4-2 victory against Burton Albion in the EFL Trophy on Tuesday night.
Two goals in three minutes saw the Brewers take control in the first half before the Young Lions roared back with four unanswered strikes.
After the win, which secured progression to the knockout stages, assistant coach Boateng was delighted that the team stuck to their principles in a tough moment.
He said: “What pleases us most is that they were so brave in sticking to what we wanted them to do, in terms of playing out from the back.
“They (Burton) did ask questions of us and sometimes it’s easy when you go 2-0 down to say ‘we won’t play out from the back, we’ll go long’.
“They kept at it, they kept trying and as soon as we scored the equaliser their confidence grew so much and they thought ‘we can do this’.
“People will now talk about how we’ve qualified, which is great for the lads because we need more games in this tournament for them to develop.”
Cameron Archer’s first of the night meant Villa went into half-time trailing 2-1, but they received plenty of support from hundreds of travelling fans throughout the game as they staged a comeback.
Boateng feels the backing from the stands helped the team to produce the goods on the pitch.
“The game was perfect for the boys because in the second half they were playing towards the Villa fans,” he said.
“That gave them a big boost to go on and do better. As soon as Tristan Goodridge’s equaliser went in, I think the fans were overjoyed.
“We loved seeing the boys run to celebrate with them. I really enjoyed seeing that because some of these players haven’t played in front of big crowds yet. They really inspired the boys.”
