Blues knocked out by impressive Fulham side
FA Youth Cup
19 February 2014
City: O’Brien, Maffeo, Bossaerts, Smith-Brown, Tasende, Byrne, Intima (Celina), Ntcham (Boadu), Ambrose, Bryan, Barker
Unused: Albinson (GK), Oseni, Holland
Goals: Ambrose
This was an eagerly awaited fixture between the sides that top their respective divisions in the Premier League under 18 academy system. With City’s current venue for youth cup fixtures in the early rounds (Hyde FC) having suffered from the recent poor weather the game had been switched to Oldham Athletic FC.
It was to be a very cautious opening forty five minutes, with two sides very evenly matched creating few chances. City took a few minutes to settle into the rhythm of the match, but it was the visitors who had the first real chance inside four minutes. A dangerous pin point cross from Dean O’Halloran found Cameron Burgess but he misdirected his header over the bar.
With City growing into the game, Fulham were forced to defend more set-pieces and goalkeeper Marek Rodàk breathed a sigh of relief when Mathias Bossaerts nodded wide from three yards. It was Rodàk who was soon called into action again minutes later, stopping Thierry Ambrose’s cross with his legs before reacting to make a double save from Olivier Ntcham’s eight-yard drive.
Rodàk reacted brilliantly again when called upon to claw Jorge Intima’s jabbed six-yard shot away from his line on 55 minutes, and City paid the price for the missed opportunity moments later. It was the visitors who struck first, centre back Liam Donnelly rising the highest to head home a powerful corner from Dean O’Halloran.
City refused to let their heads drop and enjoyed their best spell of the game before eventually the pressure paid off and Ambrose glanced home a header from Tasende’s left wing cross.
There was a bit of good fortune about the visitors second goal ,Roberts had thundered down the right wing to open up room between City’s defenders but his pull-back from the by-line, took a deflection and left Moussa Dembélé with space to turn the ball past O’Brien.
City then pressed forward for an equaliser and gaps opened in their half and O’Halloran , despite getting away with a rash challenge on a City player, exploited the space to find Dembélé, who again showed his striker’s instincts to rifle in his second of the night.
So the under 18’s bowed out of the FA Youth Cup at the fifth round stage, to a side who must now be considered the favourites to win the competition.