Manchester City’s Premier League 2 boss Simon Davies has called on his team to maintain their standards in Saturday’s clash with Reading.

City sit in second in the table behind Everton but the coach expects his side to set new standards in the match that will be streamed live on the ‘Manchester City Academy’ Facebook page.

He said: “This group are proving their talent every week coming up against U23s but they have to keep working to that standard if their development is to continue throughout the change to men’s football.

“The beauty of it is that bar Thierry Ambrose, Denzeil Boadu, James Horsfield and Billy O’Brien, the Youth League and Premier League teams are the same so we can keep consistency.”

Having come back from two goals down in Tuesday’s Youth League tie with Celtic, Davies knows his team must focus from kick-off.

View highlights from last Saturday’s U18s Manchester derby below:

Goals from Rodney Kongolo, Jadon Sancho and Lorenzo Gonzalez turned the match on its head but the coach has demanded that there isn’t a repeat of the first half performance.

“Even though we spoke about it before the game, we fell into a trap and didn’t apply ourselves correctly in the first half,” he said.

“They probably saw the league table and realised that they couldn’t change it but at Manchester City we expect the correct standards in every game. We came out and did the ugly bits better and that always allows us to play the football we can.

“Our players make mistakes but it’s about ensuring they learn from them so they will make less of them in the future.”

Finally, with this being the last Premier League 2 match of 2016, Davies has insisted his players should not expect a long break over the festive period.

He said: “It won’t be so much of a break over Christmas but they will get some rest alongside their tough training sessions.”

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