City hit six again
Barclays Premier Reserve League
Friday 28th March 2014
City: Lawlor, Drury, Tasende, Facey, Denayer (Plummer), Glendon, Fofana, Ntcham, Hiwula, Lopes (Cole), Bytyqi
Goals: Hiwula(2), Fofana(2), Cole, og
Unused: O'Brien (GK), Bossaerts, Bryan
Another six goal salvo from the young blues ensured they keep pace with the leaders of the Barclays U21 Premier League for a place in the end of season play-offs. Four first half goals from Seko Fofana an own goal and a brace from Jordy Hiwula pretty much sealed the victory for City but a late Devante Cole goal and a contender for goal of the season from Fofana completed the rout.
These last two games from our U21s has clearly shown that Patrick Vieira has learnt from his mistakes of being cautious in the second half after twice throwing away one nil leads in the previous two EDS fixtures. City as so many times before started off with a real bang as they took the lead in the fourth minute when a Hiwula was the recipient of a poor clearance but he bore down on goal and as he has done so much so more recently finished past Joel Dixon in the Sunderland goal.
Despite that quick start however a slip by George Glendon about forty yards from goal allowed Mikael Mandron to nick in and take the ball and run on at goal but fortunately his shot was pretty much straight at Ian Lawlor and he got his body well behind the ball.
City however doubled their lead in the twelfth minute when a strong run down the right by fullback Adam Drury allowed him to put in a deep cross that Hiwula chested away from his body but the defender was slightly flat footed and Jody went around him and fired into the corner of the goal past Dixon for his sixth goal in just five days.
Within ninety seconds that two had become three goals when the two French youth internationals Olivier Ntcham and Seko Fofana combined with Olivier making a surging run on the left with great close control and footwork allowed him to dink a cross into Seko who was given time and space to put an easy shot into the near post to make it three nil to City.
Ntcham then unfortunately went for an inswinging Jordon Laider free kick from the left and he followed the trajectory but did not quite get there enough and his contact on the ball ensured it curled around the despairing dive of Lawlor to make it three one on the night in the twenty fifth minute.
Jordy Hiwula then had Joel Dixon to dislike for preventing the young Mancunian from scoring his second hat-trick in a week as yet again the combination of Lopes and Drury on the right hand side caused all sorts of problems for the Sunderland defence and both times the Drury cross coming in and both times the athleticism of Dixon was there to deny Jordy what looked certain goals.
That fourth goal however was just seconds away as Sunderland returned City’s favour of an own goal with one of their own when Sinan Bytyqi played a through ball for Marcos Lopes to chase onto but Thomas Robson just beat the young Portuguese international to the ball and inadvertently diverted the ball past Dixon.
Sunderland were not on level points with City for nothing and they had our defence a bit of sixes and sevens but the young blues had young Belgian international Jason Denayer to thank for keeping the score at four one when somehow he got back to clear a certain Mandron goal with a powerful scooped clearance.
City continued to press in the second half but just as we entered the ninth minute after the break a cleared ball after good work by City on the right hand side came to Seko Fofana about forty yards out and the young Frenchman took a touch for the ball away from his body before unleashing an unstoppable shot that went in off the underside of the bar in the top corner of the goal.
Lopes nearly made it six goals on the hour mark when he made a strong run on the right hand side before he cut inside and fired a curling shot into the near post of the goal but again Sunderland had Dixon to thank for keeping the score down to five.
City then had the width of the post to deny the sixth goal after the ball was worked out to the left where Bytyqi was able to cut inside and curl a shot with his right foot onto the top corner of the woodwork.
City took Lopes and Denayer off and their shape changed and some of their forward impetus went away with the changes and so Sunderland were able to play a through ball on the break which Mandron ran onto but despite Lawlor reacting quickly and getting contact on the ball he was outside his area and his momentum carried him away from the ball and Mandron was able to run on and fire in on the angle at the near post to reduce the deficit to three goals.
City restored their second goal cushion in stoppage time when Olivier Ntcham saw substitute Devante Cole push his run forward on the left side and his through ball was perfectly weighted to feet and the England U19s international made no mistake with his low cool finish past Dixon.
Next up for City is the chance to play in the inaugural U21s Premier League cup with a semi-final encounter with unlikely opponents Burnley at the new home venue of Leigh Sports village where the young blues scored six past their East Lancs neighbours Blackburn Rovers this week.