Swansea City Under-18s Chris Llewellyn

Coach Chris Llewellyn expressed his delight as Swansea City Under-18s beat Newcastle United 2-1 to top of their merit group at Landore on Saturday.

Goals from Liam Cullen and Aaron Lewis helped the scholars claim their fourth win in five games.

The result shows a remarkable change in fortunes for the U18s, who went without a win in their opening 11 games in their first season in category one football. 

And Llewellyn hailed the young Swans for their resilience following their difficult start to the season.

"We did not want our season to end on a low," he said. "We set ourselves a target to finish top of this merit league and the players have delivered with some great performances and results.

"They have shown a lot of resilience and been outstanding to come from behind in games and to grind out results in the last few weeks.

"There are a lot of positives to take from the season overall. We had shown significant signs of improvement since taking the step up to this category."

Their top-of-the-table position in the Group 3 merit division sees the Under-18s overall finish 17th out of 24 teams taking part in the Premier League's category one football programme.

Throughout the season the young Swans earned wins over Leicester, Southampton and Norwich, with draws also against Chelsea and Manchester United's academy sides.

"It was a tough introduction to category one football," admitted Llewellyn. "It took 10 to 12 games for us to adapt to the level.

"But the players worked hard in training and we have all developed massively since the start of the campaign.  

"We are a million miles away from where we were back in August. Credit has to go to all the players involved, we have progressed as a team and as individuals and met our target to continue developing and end the season unbeaten."