City Edge their Annual Welsh Pre-Season Friendly
U18s Pre-Season Friendly
Tuesday 28th July 2015 7:30pm Kick off
City: Albinson(GK), Duhaney, Murray(Coveney 79), Kigbu(Bullock 64), Blackshaw, Davenport, Buckley(Corfe 82), Diallo, Faour(L Nmecha 73), Patching(Hardy 79), Brahim.
Goals: Buckley(53)
Unused Subs: Grimshaw(GK).
Now that City’s EDS & U18s squad spend a portion of their pre-season abroad on training camps our first opportunity to watch our talented young lads comes at our usual annual friendly at Rhyl’s Belle Vue ground and how we had missed you City youth. Staying with tradition City brought their U18s squad that was made up mostly of first year scholars and the young lads kept up the tradition of not being beaten by their adult semi-professional league counterparts; who ply their trade in the Welsh Premier league; as a second half Isaac Buckley goal was enough to seal the victory for City.
City started off very brightly and brought the ball down well and controlled the majority of possession with good passing and movement off the ball and so created chances early on from Faour and Patching who’s shots were block and went just over the bar respectively.
Not even ten minutes had past when City created a really good chance to take the lead when Sadou Diallo played an inch perfect ball over and through the Rhyl defence to the run of Buckley who got on and into the clear but Rhyl goalkeeper Mike Askew was on fine form and pulled off a great save to put the ball behind for the corner from Isaac’s powerful shot.
Rhyl finally got themselves going on the quarter hour mark when they broke through centrally and their beast of a centre forward Aaron Bowen got through City’s defence and was in a position to strike but Charlie Albinson was very alert and raced off his line and dived in winning the ball with a fine heft challenge.
Not long after that physical presence paid off when they drew a foul just outside the area which was placed just over the bar and was clearly a warning sign to City that the Welsh side were not going to make this friendly an easy game.
That was really demonstrated with just over ten minutes of the half remaining when Rhyl got forward down their right and put in a deep cross that came back into the six yard area and there was Paul McManus who looked to all the world like he would put the Welsh side in the lead but he fluffed his lines as he blazed over from just five yards.
Just moments later and City broke free down their right where Demeaco Duhaney made an overlapping run and powered in a great curling cross that had any player been running into the area would have got to and probably given City the lead with halftime approaching as the Rhyl defence was all over the place at the time.
City remained an unchanged side as the second half started which was very pleasing to see Josh Murray play more than forty five minutes since his awful leg break for England U16s in the Victory Shield back in November 2013 at Bournemouth’s Goldsands Stadium against Northern Ireland.
City started the second half as they had the first; on the front foot. That forward looking play allowed City to take the lead in the fifty third minute when Brahim Abdelkader Diaz wriggled his way into space and played a lovely low through ball that Buckley touched away from his close marker and ran onto the area and fired a low shot under the body on the onrushing Askew and into the far corner of the goal.
That action really saw Brahim come into the game and work his magic behind the forwards and get into space where he was available to fire at goal; one which he really got hold of and fired towards the top corner but Askew used all his athletic and acrobatic prowess to dive and get a good enough hand to the ball missiling towards the goal and behind for a corner.
Zackarias Faour who’s hold up play had been the best I had ever seen from him allowed him to win a free kick from about thirty yards and so after scoring from a dead ball against Elche last week he was first to step up to try again. The strike was fired in, in a style similar to Ronaldo’s but the ball did not come down quite enough and went a couple of inches above the bar in the top corner.
Albinson and Askew were both tested as the game wore on to a degree and both sides made quite a few personnel changes but neither side were able to alter the current score with both goalkeepers commanding their areas with real fortitude.
City will be very pleased with their display and the way they were able to pass the ball and being able to add some of the new U16s to this squad should see a very successful #BU18PL campaign.