Leeds United Under-23s boss Carlos Corberan has told the young Whites to be brave and learn from adverse experiences, if they want to be successful first team players.
The Whites Under-23s booked their berth in the quarter-finals of the Premier League Cup with a 6-5 win over Fulham on penalties at Nethermoor Park on Thursday.
Despite taking the lead through Ryan Edmondson in the 43rd minute, Leeds were handed a huge blow when goalkeeper Harrison Male was sent off right after the interval.
Fulham clawed their way back into the game with goals from Matthew O’Riley and Nicolas Santos-Clase, before Izzy Brown scored an equaliser to take the game into extra time and later penalties.
The young Whites triumphed in the end as Gaetano Berardi struck the winning penalty and following their win, Corberan told the Under-23s side that they must be brave and learn from challenging experiences, such as the one on Thursday.
Corberan stressed that nobody can become a footballer without personality and insisted the young Whites must build on the experiences to replicate the kind of success enjoyed by the first team players at senior level.
“They have to be brave. It is impossible to be football players without personality”, Corberan told LUTV.
“The first team players are there because they have quality and [also because] they have personality too.
"So this experience shows who has the personality to go there.
“You have to be brave because, sometimes these experiences have to help us a lot that in another context, maybe in more demanding competitions, they have to be ready to solve the situation like they did today.”
Leeds Under-23s will next face Colchester United in the Professional Development League on 26th March.
