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| Khius Metz opened the scoring |
It should never have got to penalties, but Burnley only have themselves to blame for this defeat. We failed to take our chances and then, right at the end, conceded a very soft second goal which led to the penalties.
Three years ago tonight I sat inside Old Trafford and proudly watched our youth team beat Manchester United 4-3 in extra time with a Jason Gilchrist hat trick, a United side that included such as James Wilson, who scored for Brighton last weekend, and Adnan Januzaj. This coming just a few months after we'd reached the semi-final of the competiition.
Tonight, three years on, we've gone out of the same FA Youth Cup competition against the youth team from a Ryman League club who, to be fair, did have the star of the show in goalkeeper in Callum Lunn and it was fitting that he should have the final say.
By half time the tie could have been over but we went into the interval with just a one goal lead. There had been some disappointing finishing but Lunn was the main reason. I lost count of the good saves he made and the only time he was beaten was after 27 minutes when Khius Metz finished well from around ten yards after a good ball in from Tyler Shrimpton.
I don't think anyone would have had any concerns at half time but the second half was very much a different story. The Met were by far the better side and might have scored on a number of occasions. There wasn't too long to go when they did draw level but it was a fortunate one when the referee harshly awarded a penalty against Lewis Norvock. There seemed nothing wrong with the challenge to me but Luke Brant made no mistake from the spot kick and so we went into extra time.
By now there were players suffering from cramp, as is often the case at this level, but Burnley regained the initiative and only Lunn with a sensational double save to deny Josh Dolling kept the scores level.
But four minutes from half time, Dolling did score and for much of the remainder of the game it looked certain to be the winner other than one effort from the visitors that hit the bar before being hastily cleared.
The police won a free kick just as the 120 minutes were completed and the board went up for one extra minute. We defended it dreadfully to allow Ben Marret to equalise and take us into extra time.
Both teams scored with their first four penalties, with the police going first. Andy Nugent, Dolling, Aiden O'Neill and Tommy Wood scoring ours.
Then the door was opened once more for us when they fired wide with their fifth kick, only for Shaun Hobson to see his saved so into sudden death we went at 4-4.
That became 5-5 with Miles Fenton scoring for us but when they scored the next it proved to be the winner with Lunn saving from Mark Howarth to send Burnley out of the competition.
The teams were;
Burnley: Tony Aghayere, Vashiko Dixon, Shaun Hobson, Lee Norvock, Andy Nugent, Nashé Chakwana (Miles Fenton 82), Hamam El-Fitouri (Mark Howarth 61), Tyler Shrimpton, Josh Dolling, Khius Metz (Tommy Wood 66). Subs not used: Adam Bruce, Billy Grogan.
Met Police: Callum Lunn, Chris Ogunlana, Matt Hancock, Connor Gales, Luke Brant, Dudley Pearn (Billy Brown 111), Lemar Fowakes (Ben Marret 69), Luke Robertson, Daniel Scantlebury, Ethan Chislett (Cameron Green 57). Subs not used: David Opoku, Josh Greenleaf, Matt Willett, Sammy Taylor, Charlie Dicks.
Referee: J. Kenny.