Manchester City put on a special trophy presentation at their training ground to mark the league title won by their U18s last season.
Gareth Taylor's youngsters were closing in on the U18 Premier League North in March, 12 points clear of second-placed Liverpool with five games to play compared to the seven of their nearest rivals. After a suspension of nearly four months owing to the coronavirus pandemic, it was confirmed earlier in August that the final standings would be decided on a points-per-game basis - meaning the Blues were crowned champions.
That gave them a league and cup double, having won the U18 Premier League Cup for the second successive year shortly before football was halted.
With the club's youngsters returning to training in preparation for the new season, the decision was taken by the academy to hold a trophy presentation in recognition of the success.
The celebration had to be socially distanced, with groups sticking to their respective bubbles and individual medals on cones for the players to pick up, but the club wanted to mark the achievement.
Jason Wilcox, head of the academy, addressed the youngsters on the indoor pitch at the club's training ground and Taylor - now coaching the women's team - also had the opportunity to speak to his former troops.
"It was crazy really being awarded this title in lockdown," Taylor told M.E.N Sport. "Sometimes you don't get chance to communicate with the players and obviously now being in a new role. It was good to see them and see how some of them have grown in the space of five months.
"I just said to them then about the importance of the team. Every one of those players in there played their part in us being successful. We spoke at the beginning of the season around what our ambition was. We wanted to be competitive in every competition but the league was one that we really wanted to be successful in because that was a real test of the best team.
"We were on course in the Youth Cup having made the latter stages and if we'd have won the Youth Cup then great but the league was one that we were all going to be really proud of.
"A great group of lads to work with and a great team of staff too."
