Fletcher says Man Utd U18s winning start to 2026 'is not their focus'

Darren Fletcher says why Manchester United's U-18s are not "focused" on the statistic of having a winning start to 2026.

The U18s had another important big win over Wolves where JJ Gabriel got a double and Noah Ajayi got the other goal.

It means that they have won maximum points so far from this calendar year, but Fletcher says that the focus in the academy is about "playing properly".

He said the team goes "game by game" pointing out: "It is important that we challenge the players to play properly, we go and try and win every game, I don't think we were fully aware of that stat until recently but it is not something we focus on, it is primarily about development."

And look back at the Wolves game he said: "I was really happy with the first half, I thought we put in a really professional performance against a Wolves team which get a lot of players behind the ball.

"They make it difficult and there is no real space but I thought in the first half we did really well, we carried that good balance of threats in behind and looking to keep possession, moving the ball from side to side, so we went in at half-time 2-0 up and I was really happy with that.

"I wasn't so happy with the second half performance, 2-0 is a difficult score and we over-indulged ourselves, we got a bit sloppy and let Wolves back in with a goal.

"It's all about development, when you've been in the game a long time you see these situations coming but they need to feel it to learn it.

"We did say at half-time make sure you do things right because Wolves won't change their approach, so your details, your passes have to be right, your decision making has to be right, you've still got to do the right things.

"But when you come off it a bit, and give them a glimmer of hope at 2-1 anything could have happened, but fortunately enough we got a penalty at the end and 3-1 was probably a deserved scoreline but it was a bit shaky for a few moments."