Taylor Harwood-Bellis says Manchester City's FA Youth Cup win will make a big difference for future academy sides at the club.
City won the competition for the first time since 2008 this week, finally overcoming Chelsea after losing the final to them for the three previous successive seasons.
Harwood-Bellis scored an own goal in the contest but put in an otherwise solid performance as he helped City to a 3-2 win.
Speaking to City's website, the 18-year-old believes winning the cup - and beating Chelsea to do so - will inspire future generations to do similar.
He said: “It makes a massive difference that we’ve come in and beaten that Chelsea team who have won it so many times, especially against us.
“So it gives us a massive boost going into it next year as well, whoever we get in the final we know we’ve won it once now so we can win it again.
“So it definitely gives us massive confidence in the competition, especially in the finals, that we’ve been beaten sometimes in the finals but we’ve got more confidence going into next year.”
Harwood-Bellis says some may underestimate how important the victory was as they got the monkey of losing previous finals to Chelsea off their back.
Speaking on a personal level, the centre-back also said he was motivated by the fact it was his final FA Youth Cup match.
He explained: “I think the fact it was playing on our minds, people talking about the fact we’ve not won it in so long, especially last year.
“I think that just gave us that little bit extra of ‘we kind of need to win it now, it’s our time’.
“That got us through all the bad moments, especially going into the game, it was massive.
“People would say I’ve played in bigger games as I’ve played in first-team games but, for me, in my academy career, it was the biggest game - and the last one I could ever play in the FA Youth Cup, so to win it was just massive.”
