Man Utd U18s won 3-2 against Sunderland in the FA Youth Cup quarter-finals and Noah Ajayi notched another goal.

Wayne Rooney, Michael Carrick and Senne Lammens were three of the high-profile names in the Old Trafford directors’ box to watch the FA Youth Cup quarter-final on Wednesday.

JJ Gabriel was the star on show. The youngster is the poster boy of the Class of ’26, but it was his teammate, Noah Ajayi, who opened the scoring with a fine long-range strike from distance.

All the talk around the academy has been about Gabriel this season, meaning Ajayi has probably gone under the radar. The winger has four goals in his last three league games and continued his red-hot form against Sunderland, impressively finding the bottom left corner after a winding run.

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Ajayi celebrated with a knee slide and was joined by his peers. He still had plenty to do when he picked up the ball, and the accuracy of the strike beat the Sunderland goalkeeper.

The 17-year-old has delivered consistently strong performances for the U18s this season, and he possesses the physical attributes to make the next step. And Ajayi looks like an athlete, which bodes well for his future.

Although English football has evolved, meaning more technical players who do not physically stand out at an early stage are not lost in the system, it still helps to have those qualities in academies.

Chido Obi has benefited from his stature on his journey so far. The youngster was a doubt to face Sunderland in the Youth Cup quarter-finals, but recovered from a head injury in time to start.

It has been fascinating to follow Obi’s development this term. The young striker dropped down to U18 level for the first time in a year to play in the Youth Cup in January. The decision was made to drop Obi down to U18 level to enhance United’s chances of winning the Youth Cup again.

On paper, it looked like United had a favourite’s chance of winning the competition, with the likes of Gabriel, Obi and Ajayi at Darren Fletcher’s disposal. United had talent on the pitch and pedigree on the touchline, but Sunderland rose to the occasion at Old Trafford and went down fighting.

Ajayi’s goal was the difference at the break, but the U18s didn’t really get going, so it wasn’t a surprise to see Sunderland start the second half on the front foot and turn the game on its head.

Two goals in three minutes for the Mackems silenced Old Trafford and threatened to ruin the script; however, it didn’t take long for Obi to score his 15th goal of the campaign.

Obi may look back at the end of the season and think it was his luckiest goal. The 18-year-old awkwardly scuffed his first attempt when he was one-on-one, but managed to get another bite at the cherry.

Last season, United’s downfall in the Youth Cup was their reliance on Obi. They were knocked out of the competition in the semi-finals against Aston Villa when Obi had a night to forget.

The only way to win the Youth Cup is for every youngster to play their part, so there was further encouragement that Fletcher’s side could lift the trophy when Junior Brown made it 3-2.

Brown rifled a shot from close range into the roof of the net at the Stretford End, which was just his second goal of the season. For a moment, Fletcher looked delighted on the touchline before snapping back into action and passing on instructions for his team to see out the victory.

Gabriel had a chance to get on the scoresheet when he was played into the box after a wonderful pass by Ajayi, but he was denied by a decent save. Another encouraging sign was Gabriel’s attitude. He kept on running and tracking back on a night when he would have loved to score.

Carrick was asked about Gabriel in his pre-Aston Villa press conference, even though the youngster is not old enough to play in the Premier League this season. Carrick was complimentary about the youngster, but stressed the importance of patience and giving him time to develop.

Gabriel has already trained with the first team at Carrington on several occasions. “He’s done well as you’d expect, and it’s good to have the younger players come up with us,” Carrick added.

Ajayi is another member of United’s current Youth Cup team who has trained with the first team this season. The U18s are a talented crop, and have their eyes on the trophy after reaching the semi-finals.