Nick Marshall today praised the clinical efficiency of Nottingham Forest's FA Youth Cup heroes.

The young Reds clinched a place in the quarter-finals of the prestigious competition with a 5-1 win over much-fancied Southampton at St. Mary's Stadium last night.

Patrick Bamford(pictured) followed up his five goals against Wigan last week with a four-goal blast to sink The Saints, while David Morgan also got on the scoresheet.

And reflecting on a memorable night on the south coast for Forest, Academy Director Nick Marshall revealed: "We were ruthless.

"There have been times this season when we haven't been ruthless enough but that wasn't the case against Southampton.

"Everyone will inevitably look at what Patrick achieved and rightfully so because he has scored another four goals.

"He deserves massive credit for the way he has been playing recently but the whole team played really well.

"I thought we did the horrible things in the game better than they did.

"The back four got blocks in when they got shots off and really made things hard for them.

"Our goalkeeper, when they did manage to get through, pulled off two or three decent saves and our midfield players worked their socks off, recovering and tracking back."

Southampton had beaten last season's finalists Sheffield United 7-0 earlier in the competition and were viewed by many as favourites to edge out Forest.
Marshall added:

"Southampton are a very good side and a very good Academy … and that shows how well we played.

"They have got some players in their team who I'm absolutely convinced are going to go a long way - they've had quite a few players in recent years who have gone on to other clubs for a lot of other money and I'm convinced a few who we played against will do likewise.

"They are a good team who caused us a lot of problems. We just played really, really well.

" Forest will now face either Chelsea or West Ham at The City Ground in the sixth round.