I thought you might be interested in an eyewitness account of the 2nd leg of the FA youth cup semi final at Man U. It was a game that will go down as one of the most exciting in the history of the competition.

Six goals, three of them in extra time, with Utd equalising on aggregate in the 93rd minute to take the game to extra time and then, having fallen behind again in extra time, coming back to score the winning goal with three minutes left on the clock.

A mate of mine who lives in Manchester is a closet Gooner and he went to the game to support our youngsters. He said considering the young age of the players, the skill level was excellent. It was an end to end game with numerous goalmouth incidents, great saves, near misses and good goals.

We played Utd off the park in the first half and should have been three up at half time (where have I heard that before!) Utd fought their way back into the game and credit to them - they never gave up. My mate also said that if we think Cesc is good, Fran Merida will be even better. He had a magnificent game in the centre of midfield and was so far ahead of the others in thought and deed that my mate had to keep reminding himself that the kid is only sixteen.

The game was probably lost when he couldn't play extra time because he was totally exhausted. (Ed’s note - Having played three games in a week for Spain’s youth team before being sent home dead on his feet) My mate said the players were absolutely gutted when Utd pinched the winner, just when it looked like going to penalties.

But as far as he was concerned the players did the club proud, they fought themselves to a standstill and never gave up. But more importantly they played the 'Arsenal Way '

The future is in good hands.

PS - the only downside was the pathetic crowd of 8,000. That's 30,000 less than attended the first leg at Arsenal. Shows what Utd's supporters think of their youngsters.