Academy flying to success
Barclays Academy Under 18 League
Saturday 5th April 2014
City: O'Brien, Oliver (Maffeo), Oseni, Adarabioyo, Smith-Brown, Byrne(Holland), Intima (Nemane), Celina, Ambrose, Boadu, Barker
Unused: Albinson (GK), Samuelson,
Goals: Barker(2), Ambrose
Manchester City’s under 18 side cemented their place at the top of the league, with a second consecutive 3-0 win on the road. A brace of goals from Brandon Barker, back in the side following an ankle injury, and yet another goal for the free scoring Thierry Ambrose where enough for the young Blues to secure another valuable win in their conquest to actually win the league.
Jason Wilcox’s side dominated the opening stages but it took until 25 minutes to register their first goal of the game
Celina released Barker down the left-hand side and the winger made no mistake with the finish, drilling the ball past the goalkeeper from the edge of the area with his weaker left foot to cap his return to action with a goal
City’s next attack should have produced just rewards but created a bit of confusion, and it should have been 2-0 but Ambrose’s header from Smith-Brown’s was clawed away by the Norwich keeper, although it did appear the ball had crossed the line
As Norwich began to tire, Barker and Boadu missed opportunities to add to the tally, but City did increase their lead on 77 minutes with a second goal for Barker, the winger intercepted a misplaced Ben Burgess pass before embarking on one of his trademark solo runs towards goal and sliding the ball underneath the goalkeeper for his second of the game.
Two minutes later, the result was put beyond doubt as substitute Aaron Nemane squared for Ambrose and he smashed the ball into the net at the back-post to extend City’s lead.
Next up for City is a home game against West Ham United , who are one of the sides fighting for a play- off place in the Southern division of the academy set up.
The under 16 side also won at Norwich 2-1, with both goals scored by Callum Bullock