1st leg

It was a tight affair, as might have been predicted from the build up to the game, with underdogs Roma and their wily manager Heath Brown relying on a defensive set-up to counter City’s attacking wealth.

A valuable away goal was the result in the first leg, set up the second leg nicely.

2nd leg

City’s lead was reduced to nothing in the first half in Rome, and that away goal was potentially counting double if Roma could hang on.

But a valiant defensive effort was to no avail when Torres equalised early on in the second half, and that seemed to knock the wind out of the sails of Brown’s youngsters, despite City finishing the match with only eight players on the pitch.

City gaffer Alex McLean was delighted with his boys’ triumph, and the club’s record equalling second Youth Cup

Youth Cup Winners & ‘Wild Card’ Prizes

At the start of the season, someone (sorry, I forgot who) came up with the excellent idea to offer in-game prizes to the winners of the Youth Cup, and also to one manager drawn at random from all the entrants (provided they hadn’t forfeited any games), to encourage participation.

The idea was to offer a ‘free hit’ at a new player added to the player database as a free agent – the source of many a good young prospect, and so keenly fought over that we voted to introduce a rule to make bidding on them fair for all.

So Alex at City (for winning the Youth Cup), and Jimmy at Newcastle (for winning the ‘wild card’ random draw).

New Free Agent Prize Rules

For the month of June, Alex and Jimmy can claim exclusive bidding rights on one new free agent – when they do so, anyone who has already bid must withdraw, and no one else must bid. Alex and Jimmy will take responsibility for monitoring bids and messaging managers to withdraw, as much as possible, and anyone who fails to abide by this will incur a transfer ban.

Claimed players must be announced by Alex and Jimmy on the newsfeed by 10 am on the day that the player is added.

In the event that both Alex and Jimmy claim the same player, Alex will get priority as Youth Cup Winner.

Any dispute will be settled by the game world owner.