Gatting: 'We're all very disappointed'

Steve Gatting spoke to Arsenal.com after his side were knocked out of the FA Youth Cup following a 4-2 defeat against Everton at Underhill.

on going out…
We’re all disappointed with the result. The boys wanted to do well in the FA Youth Cup. It’s their goal every year, to try and win it. Everyone’s very disappointed.

on not leading for long…
The slope makes a big difference at Barnet. If you’re playing down the slope in the first half, you want to be going in at half time in the lead. We had a good lead through Chuba. Disappointing was conceding, because we went in at half time at 1-1. I guess Everton were thinking they’d had a good half.

on conceding three times in nine minutes…
That finished the game really. It meant we had to chase the game and that was an uphill battle. What was the reason? I’m not sure. We set out for the second half in the way we had before the break. It probably came down to the important things like blocking crosses and shots, defending your box and winning headers, which Everton did very well and we could have done better.

on Gnabry hitting the post at 3-1…
It wasn’t to be. It didn’t happen and that’s football for you.

on what the players have learnt…
We sat in the changing room a minute ago and obviously the players are very down. We said to the boys that in the big games, everything has got to be right. We passed the ball very well in the first half, but in the second half you might call it a lapse of concentration with the goals. That’s the difference between winning and losing the big games.

on positives from the campaign…
There are a lot of positives to take. At the moment, we’re all disappointed but we’ve had some fine individual performances and that’s what the academy is about - trying to develop players for the first team. It’s nice to win. It’s great for the club, but our first job is to try and get players into our first team.