Colchester United under-18 lead coach Chris Llewellyn says his young players are relishing the opportunity to shine in this season’s FA Youth Cup.

The U’s youngsters beat MK Dons 2-0 at the Weston Homes Community Stadium last night to book another home tie against Reading, in the fifth round.

It is the first time in 13 years that Colchester have reached the last 16 of the competition.

The last time they reached that stage was in 2004-05, when promotion-winning Phil Parkinson was at the first-team helm.

Colchester are the lowest-ranked club to remain in the competition and Llewellyn believes his youngsters are thriving under the pressure.

He said: “This is what the competition is all about.

“It’s about playing football with consequence and the players have performed well, under pressure which is a good sign in football.

“A lot of iconic players have played in this competition in the past and have gone on to have good careers.

“It’s a platform for them and we’ll be looking to these games seeing if the players can handle the pressure, which they have done so far.”

Goals from Sam Cornish and Callum Jones sealed Colchester’s win over MK Dons, last night.

“It was a good professional performance,” said former Norwich City and Wales player Llewellyn.

“We had a good build-up to the game and produced a game plan.

"In fairness, that didn’t really go to plan and we could have played even better than we did but we found a win.”

The exact date of Colchester’s fifth-round tie against Reading is yet to be confirmed but the match has to be played before February 10.