Manchester United boss impressed by Charlton’s young stars after passing Old Trafford test

Dean Holden has revealed that Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag was left impressed by Charlton’s youngsters in Tuesday night’s EFL Cup quarter-final tie.

The Addicks lost 3-0 at Old Trafford but it needed two very late Marcus Rashford goals to take the contest away from the visitors, who had been the only London and non-Premier League club left in the competition.

A trio of prospects – Miles Leaburn, Lucas Ness and Aaron Henry – featured in the match.

Holden, a lifelong Manchester United supporter, had a chat with Ten Hag after the tie.

“He’s asked me to go into Carrington [their training ground] and see how they operate,” the Addicks boss told Charlton’s official website. “He was very complimentary about us, as was Steve McClaren [United’s assistant coach]. They did a lot of work on us. They did as much preparation on us as they are going to do for Manchester City at the weekend.

“It shows the standards they set.

“They had some really good things to say about some of our younger players. The career that Erik ten Hag has had, and the clubs he has been at, for him to be talking about some of our young players and how well they performed is the biggest thing on the night.”

Holden tweeted his thanks to Charlton’s support – 9,000 making the trip north – and described them as “incredible”.

The Addicks are set to make in the region of £600,000 for the revenue generated.

“Our supporters have shown what we can be, and we have been in the past,” he said. “We need them again against Barnsley and away to Peterborough.

“We’ve come here and had a right go. There were 70,000 here and we had 9,000 – you could hear them all night.

“It can’t be after the Lord Mayor’s Show [against Barnsley]. We have to find the performance on Saturday that we have done in the previous two league games to really kickstart our season.

“We’ve got ourselves into a decent enough position, in and around that mid-table, we need to put that hammer down and keep pushing.”