Nabil Touaizi had cancelled out Jordon Greenridge’s first half strike before the Blues struck on 81 minutes and in injury time to claim all three points in the U18 Premier League.
Eric Garcia and Keke Simmonds scored late on to hand the hosts a 3-1 lead and despite a late onslaught from the visitors, which heralded a consolation strike in the dying moments, the home side hung on for their first win in three.
What happened…
The visitors opened the scoring inside three minutes, courtesy of some impressive individual skill from Venancio De Silva Monterio. The Potters youngster skipped past several challenges before finding Greenridge and the striker drilled into the bottom corner.
City were unfortunate not to level almost immediately as Henri Ogunby was denied by a superb stop from Mate Deczki, while Ian Carlo Poveda smashed over the bar.
The hosts did level on 21 minutes, when Iker Pozo released Ogunby down the right and crossed for Touaizi to convert.
Ogunby and Poveda went close again, while at the other end, Abdoulaye Toure curled just over.
Felix Nmecha then fired straight at the Deczki before swerving a shot just wide of the post.
After the break, Ogunby saw two more efforts saved by the Stoke ‘keeper before City’s shot-stopper Pawel Sokol was called into action to thwart Greenbridge’s powerful effort.
Ogunby proved the Blues’ best attacking threat and was unlucky to watch another effort trickle just wide of the post, while substitute Simmonds struck the post with his first major action of the game.
Stoke almost restored their lead on the counter-attack when Toure curled over, before Ogunby fired into the side-netting.
City took the lead with nine minutes of normal time remaining, as substitute Ryan Corrigan whipped in a delightful cross to he backpost where Garcia was waiting to pounce.
The Blues’ looked to have put the result beyond doubt when Simmonds latched onto a beautiful through-ball and clipped over Deczki in injury time.
There was further drama though as Stoke were awarded a penalty for handball, which Kristofer Szereto despatched well.
It would prove to be the last real action of the game though and City emerged victorious.
Next up…
City host United in the U18 Manchester derby on Saturday 25 November at the City Football Academy at 11am, before travelling to Liverpool on Tuesday 28 November (7pm).
