Leeds United Under-18s bowed out of the FA Youth Cup on Monday, as they fell to a cruel 2-1 defeat in extra time against Swansea City Under-18s.

Carrick Njinko scored in the second half as the young Whites rallied from an early deficit, before seeing their own winner ruled out as the Swans then scored in the 120th minute.

After the match, boss Rob Etherington spoke exclusively to LUTV, saying: “I think we are proud of the way that they played the game.

“We asked them to use the occasion to showcase what they are all about as a group and what they are all about individually.

“It hurts them inside at the moment but we are proud of them. If you take the scoreline out of it, I think when we look back, we will be proud of the performance.

“We created enough chances to score more goals than we did. We just did not take our chances and they took theirs.

“We asked the lads to go all in which I think they did. This is what this competition is all about. Under the lights, going all the distance, I thought their attitude and their mentality to dig in and commit and recommit to the type of game that we wanted to play, I thought they deserved credit for that.

“We are here to develop individuals so nights like tonight, whilst they do hurt, they are great experiences for them moving forward in their career. They will use the emotions that they are feeling right now to progress within their careers into our first team.”