Young striker Robbie McDaid insists spirits remain high among the Under-18s squad despite last night’s FA Youth Cup defeat to Chelsea.

Jason Blunt’s young side put up a worthy fight as they matched the competition’s current holders at Elland Road, but a first-half penalty from Isaiah Brown and a late strike from Dominic Solanke proved enough for Chelsea to edge to a 2-0 win.

In front of 2,249 supporters and the LUTV cameras, it was an encouraging display from the Under-18s as they look to find a consistent run of form after mixed results so far this campaign.

18-year-old McDaid believes he and his team-mates can take plenty of confidence from how big of a test they posed to what is widely regarded as one of the country’s strongest youth teams.

"The boys are pretty upbeat about it," said McDaid. "We haven’t had the rub of the green this season, we’ve been putting in the performances but haven’t been getting results.

"I think this is the turning point in our season now. We played really well against a team who will probably go on and win the whole tournament.

"All the boys are upbeat about it, we’re looking forward to the rest of the season and we think we can go on now and really climb up the table.

"We’ll see what happens but the boys are fine. We wanted a performance tonight and we got one.

"A lot of the guys will get a lot of confidence from this. We’re on the back of a bad run but I think tonight we were superb, we deserved something from the game.

"Myself and the boys are really looking forward to the rest of the season."

McDaid, who arrived from Northern Irish side Glenavon in the summer, says the experience of playing at Elland Road and the sense of occasion surrounding the game will now serve the youngsters in good stead for the future.

"That’s what we’re going to be looking for when we’re older, playing in front of more people and playing in stadiums," he said.

"It’s a big learning curve for us. All the boys have been together now for six or seven months, it’s just superb for us.

"That’s where every kid wants to be with fans roaring against teams like Chelsea at Elland Road, it’s what dreams are made of.

"I can take a lot of confidence from it, I thought I did pretty well, as did all the boys.

"It’s just a matter of keeping that confidence going into the next game.

"Myself and the boys gained a lot of confidence from last night, we had nothing to fear and we showed that. In the rest of the season, we’ll show our real worth."