City rue missed chances
Barclays Under 18 League
Saturday 15th March 2014
City: Albinson, Oliver, Oseni, Humphreys,Smith-Brown, Holland, Intima, Celina, Ambrose (Boadu), Ntcham, Barker
Unused: Wassi, Vasi, Samuelsen
Goals: Barker
City’s U18s will have looked at this fixture as a way of strengthening their top place in the north division with three very difficult games to play at home against West Ham and away to Liverpool and Chelsea. However with injuries and the quarter final of the UEFA youth league game coming up the more experienced players were not in the squad against Wolves and maybe that lack of experience meant that City could not add another goal to Brandon Barker’s early second half strike.
The game in very inconsistent gusty windy conditions saw City line up with Irish youth international Tom Holland who was making his first start for the U18s, in his usual central midfield role; but Bersant Celina had joined him in the more central position from his usual wide midfield role. It was Celina who created the first chance in the opening minute when he sent out a lovely ball out wide to Barker on the left and he forced his way at pace past two defenders to the by-line but he neither crossed nor curled his effort sufficiently for any of the City players or himself to take the advantage.
City and especially Celina were running the show in the first half as he was allowed the time and space to dictate the play on numerous occasions and more often than not he found Barker who was giving the fullback a very difficult half but unfortunately the England U18s youth international was just not doing quite the right thing with his shots or bringing other players into play with his crosses or passes in the final third.
City’s two French youth internationals Thierry Ambrose and Olivier Ntcham were presented with fairly decent chances to give City the lead but Ambrose ball bobbled and his curled shot went over and Ntcham’s shot did not have enough power to beat the keeper.
However against the run of play Wolves could have taken the lead with just under five minutes of the half remaining when they attacked down the right and the ball came to their lone striker Ibrahim Keita but he rather rushed at his shot and put the effort wide.
The second half pretty replicated the first half with Wolves being resilient and City dominating but not quite showing that extra bit of quality in the final third to go on and score the two or three goals that the overall play would suggest.
City did take the lead in the fifty fifth minute when a Celina free kick found its way across the area over to the left when Barker picked the ball up and cut inside and danced around the defenders and curled a very good low hard shot past Harry Burgoyne in the Wolves goal.
City will be kicking themselves as they almost immediately conceded the equalizer as they were rather at sixes and sevens as Wolves got forward and were left free to put the ball into an empty goal.
The young blues continued to get forward well and in the most part showed good composed in defence but they all too often were trying to force another goal and were a little hamstrung in losing one of the countries’ top youth goalscorers’ Thierry Ambrose as he was replaced by Denzeil Boadu probably with the UEFA game in mind with him being Devante Cole’s only real strike partner in that competition.
City however will still get a chance to take three points from Wolves as they have yet to arrange the twice postponed away fixture but they will need to improve if they are to hold off Everton’s challenge for top place in the league.
Meanwhile, the under 16s got back to winning ways, running out 3-0 victors with goals from Buckley, Patching and Bullock(P)