Tony McAndrew last night spoke of his pride as Villa clinched the FA Premier Academy League crown.

First-half goals from James Collins and Chris Herd were enough to sink FA Youth Cup winners Manchester City 2-0 at Villa Park - giving the Young Lions a deserved triumph.

The victory means Villa's Under-18s lost just five games all season - one of them being the FA Youth Cup semi-final against Chelsea.

McAndrew told www.avfc.co.uk: "I'm so proud of the kids. They've been great all season and they totally deserve this. I thought it was a tough game for them and they had to weather some pretty fierce pressure in the early stages.

"But when you look at the work they've put in over the year, they've deserved it and I'm delighted for them.

"It's hard to put into words when you work with a team and then you see them do what this team has. I'll never forget the moment when Clarky (Ciaran Clark) lifted the trophy and I hope they never forget. These are the moments they need to draw on for the rest of their careers.

"We got battered for the first 20 minutes, we couldn't get the ball and they put us under real pressure. We were at full stretch to stay in the game.

"Then we got a little bit of luck with the first goal and that seemed to settle us down. It seemed to just kickstart us. To get the second goal before half-time was great."

The Academy coach continued: "There was a slip for the first goal, bit fair play to James Collins, he still had to go and finish it. Because we'd not been having such a great time there was a wee bit of pressure there. I thought he showed great calmness and a clinical finish.

"He did exceptionally well for the second goal. His hold-up play was good to set Chris Herd up. That's something we've been working on with James to get him to be that target for us. It was a great finish from Chris."

See AVTV Online for much more from the Play-Off Final.