Burnley Under-18 boss still proud despite 'hurt' of Blackburn Rovers FA Youth Cup defeat

A 93rd minute own goal saw Burnley’s neighbours snatch a 2-1 win at Ewood Park on Tuesday night, as they moved into the last four of the competition.

But for the young Clarets, they were left to lick their wounds after suffering a last-gasp heartbreak on enemy soil.

While Philliskirk acknowledges Blackburn were the better side on the night and were worthy winners, the late nature of the defeat will “hurt” his players.

“Obviously if you just focus on that last kick of the game, basically to lose the game, you have a massive sense of disappointment,” he told the Burnley Express.

“But I think you've sometimes got to hold your hands up as a coach, a manager, a player and sometimes say, and I firmly believe and my staff firmly believe, that Blackburn were better than us tonight.

“We were slightly disappointed with how we played. We knew it was a big occasion.

“I thought we dug in, this group has got great spirit. We won the Category Two league last year and we've got to the quarter-final of the FA Youth Cup this year as we've gone back into Category One, so I don't think we must forget that and this is a great achievement.

“I think the fact it's Blackburn makes it a little bit harder to take and it hurts that a little bit more. But I think if it had been any game and you lose in the 93rd minute, it's disappointing.

“But I don't really want to say too much to the players at the moment because this is such an important time for the young players. Decisions are going to be made soon on contracts and retain, release, etc which is never a nice time of the year.

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“I said to the boys, it's really important that in this adversity, you often find out a lot about people in life, never mind in football. So I've said to the boys: ‘okay, we'll be really disappointed tomorrow and then we start again on Thursday’.

“We've got a league game against Middlesbrough on Saturday, so let's see how we react to this disappointment and then hopefully there will be a lot more positivity to talk about for the rest of the season.”

When asked if nerves played a factor given the significance of the occasion, Philliskirk added: “It's funny you should say that. One or two of my staff said that. It was like a few of the players seemed to freeze.

“Another thing I’ve said to the players is that in big games like this, the elite, top players - your Ronaldo’s, your Messi’s - they perform in the biggest games, so let that be a learning curve for them.

“Hopefully, going forward, we've got some big games coming up in the league. The Under-21s are in the semi-final of the Premier League Cup. Half of these lads are in the Under-21s. So at the next stage, can they perform a little bit better in the bigger games?

“But, no excuses, no regrets. I'm proud of the lads. This cup run's been amazing on the back of winning the league last season.

“I think they're all down. But in the cold light of day when we reflect on this, I think you'd say it's been another really successful campaign.”

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