The U’s drew 1-1 with AFC Wimbledon in normal time before winning 4-3 on penalties to progress to the semi-final.
The U’s now face a semi-final away at Cambridge United which is most likely going to be played this Saturday, the 3rd of December.
Fraser Barnsley saved three spot kicks, before Erion Zabeli converted the winning penalty.
“It’s everything you dream of. Me and Christian (Fortuna) work hard on analysing penalties and looking at where they may go. It’s hard work paying off for both of us doing our homework and it’s a great feeling. It’s my job and it’s the best moment for a keeper” said the shot stopper.
“We knew we weren’t at our best first half, but we did well to keep it at one and keep that mentality strong. Pabs and Hacks said coming out in the second half, we just need to stay in it and something will happen and it’s a perfect example of the hard work we’ve been putting in the last few weeks” added Barnsley.
Manager Chris Hackett said
“When you come to Wimbledon away it’s a tough game, they’re aggressive, play on the front foot and get in your face. They have some good attacking players so with a young group that we bought today with a lot of Under 16’s stepping up we knew it would be tough. After Going one down, they backed themselves and stuck together and to come back into the game and create chances to go on and win it was outstanding.”
“We’ve got a lot of cup fixtures coming up, and that provides lots of opportunities for the boys to play in these sorts of games. The boys did really well, and we spoke about momentum and continuing that from our Youth Cup game. It’s always hard to back up the effort and emotion of a Youth Cup game, going into another fixture four or five days later but they did that well for a young group today.”
The U's will have the chance to make it to the final away against Cambridge United and we will confirm the date as soon as possible.