Aston Villa academy coach Tony McAndrew is tipping some of his bright young things to make the step up and one day pull on a first team shirt as he tries to lift their spirits after the heartache of their exit from the FA Youth Cup.

A battling Villa side were beaten 3-2 by Chelsea at Villa Park on Wednesday night in the second leg of the semi-final, losing 4-3 on aggregate.

And while the Londoners will now go on and enjoy the final over two legs against Manchester City, McAndrew knows he has a hard task to drive his youngsters on as they still top their youth league and need to keep on getting results if they are to avoid ending what has been a highly promising season empty-handed.

Among the players who has impressed McAndrew this season is Harry Forrester who scored Villa's two goals in the semi-final second leg and who was signed by Villa from Watford in the summer.

Forrester, who comes from the same coaching stable as Villa wing wizard Ashley Young, is said to be worth £2 million and impressed the 11,000 crowd at Villa park on Wednesday.

His coach said: "Harry is very special and they were very special goals. He is very good if you just let him go and do his stuff. They were two fantastic goals and he has quality with his vision and passing. I thought he handled the match and the situation very well probably better than anyone else in the team."

McAndrew, who played for Chelsea and Middlesbrough and had a host of coaching positions before joining Bryan Jones and Gordon Cowans in running the Villa academy at Bodymoor Heath added: "Harry is talented and people who score goals like that certainly get noticed. He never stops running and has a great work rate. We want to work on his fitness a bit and he works hard that isn't the issue but we just need to get him a bit stronger."

McAndrew said team-mate Barry Bannan was another capable of making the step up. He said: "Baz is a terrific footballer. He has a terrific brain. It doesn't matter if he is not a little bit bigger because he is such a terrific footballer and that does it for me. His vision is also incredible."

The coach said it was vital now the lads hung on to their league position so they ended up with at least one piece of silverware this year.

He said: "I am very proud of the lads. They have done brilliantly this season. We will learn from this defeat and from being in this competition.

"To play in front of 11,000 people will have given the lads great experience. We will take loads of positives from this game.

"The lads' work ethic is fantastic and they are good footballers and good footballers hate to lose.

"But they will have enjoyed the experience despite the result. If you can't enjoy a match like that as a player then you should be doing something else like working in a supermarket.

"The goal for these lads is to play at Villa Park in front of 40,000 people. I am sure there are one or two out there who can go all the way and make it to the first team."