Manchester City scored three late goals to secure an entertaining 4-2 win in the Premier League 2 on Friday night to hand new head coach Brian Barry-Murphy his first win in charge.
However, rather than the players feeling sheepish for letting opponents Blackburn to within three minutes of a useful win, it was Barry-Murphy who walked into the dressing room after the game to apologise.
With Cole Palmer and Tommy Doyle with the City first team, plus presumably Sam Edozie, and Liam Delap injured, it was a youthful under-23 side looking for their first win of the season. After taking the lead in the first half through James McAtee - one of the more senior members of the EDS side - Blackburn scored a quickfire double to take control.
It wasn't until the 87th minute when McAtee scored a free kick to equalise, and the talented forward completed his hat-trick and put City ahead on the stroke of 90 minutes with a well-taken finish. Romeo Lavia scored a rebound from his own penalty to make the game safe deep into injury time.
Reflecting on the game, Barry-Murphy said he felt the need to apologise to his players after full time.
“I apologised to the players," he said.
"I was involved with quite a few of those types of games last season [at Rochdale] and I didn’t want to bring that into our dressing room. I think in these situations when things go against you, you learn so much in terms of our resilience and our mentality.
"To see the way the lads battled back and kept trying to play against a team who were very good on the night was testament to the players’ ability and courage. It’s been a rushed pre-season and to look so strong at the end of the game was testament to the work being put in.”
Barry-Murphy praised his players further, saying the experience of having to fight back will be an important learning curve in the future.
He continued: “Delighted, there is so much talent here and it’s my job to focus on when things do get difficult, things go against you and you feel hard done by, so it is easy to find excuses but the mentality of the group means I feel like I can push them very hard and know that if they stick to the way they work and the way they play, the boys have been really well coached in my absence by the staff here.
"They have developed that resilience then it could be very exciting going further. I think it is all about experience in different things. It is great when everything is going your way, but I think the real beauty is in the difficult moments when you feel as if you have been hard done by or something hasn’t quite gone your way and how you react and stick to the plan.
"Win, lose or draw, for me it is a very important part of these players characters.”
The new head-coach also reserved particular praise for McAtee, who stepped up in the absence of more recognised academy names to produce a match-winning performance.
Barry-Murphy said: "Very indicative of the type of situation we faced where Blackburn defended very resolutely and made the spaces very tight between their midfield and their defence. It was very hard for James to operate in that space but the discipline for him to hold his position and work for his teammates carries on from Sunday.
"You are seeing him being one of the more senior players in this group and looking after Micah and Shea who are making a first appearance of the season and Oscar who is very young, so to see him develop that leadership is a very important part of his development.”
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