City beat Sunderland to lift U18s Premier League North title

City blew Sunderland away in the first half as Nico O’Reilly opened the scoring after 10 minutes with a towering header past Matt Young in the Sunderland goal.

Justin Oboavwoduo kept composed to curl in our second five minutes later and Isaiah Dada-Mascoll swept the ball home as we scored three goal in 25 minutes.

The visitors reduced the deficit through Jake Waters briefly before Joel Ndala picked out the far corner with a sublime curling effort.

Sunderland were out of the traps quicker after the break and Waters scored his second as the intensity increased for the reminder of the contest.

WHAT HAPPENED

The clash that Ben Wilkinson would have saved in his diary had dawned, as the two teams entered the pitch knowing what was at stake in the fight for the Under-18s Premier League North title.

What appeared to be a tough assignment for our young outfit, was started with confidence as we carved out our first opportunity in the early stages.

A series of neat interchanging passing flowed down the right, with Jacob Wright striking goal wards in the box, but his tame effort was cusped calmly by Matt Young in the Sunderland goal.

The City Under-18s boss would have dreamt of an early start, and the manner in which we broke the deadlock after 10 minutes play summarised the City way of playing.

Max Alleyne reclaimed the ball back in Sunderland’s defensive half, before spraying a pass from right to left for Joel Ndala.

His floated cross evaded everyone in the box and bounced out kindly to Wright. He whipped the ball in and found the tall presence of Nico O’Reilly, who was there to head in fourth goal in three matches.

The wind was in our sails as we hunted for our second.

O’Reilly had possession inside the penalty area before he cut inside and clipped the ball into Ashton Muir who was unmarked, but the winger rushed his shot, and the keeper was on hand to make an easy save.

Five minutes after we scored our first, we broke through again.

Sunderland were counter pressed into kicking the ball out to the left, where Ndala raced onto the loose ball and wrong footed Thomas Lavery, before founding Justin Oboavwoduo on the edge of the penalty area.

He nutmegged his defender to create a few yards of space, before finessing an exquisite shot past the keeper.

The visitors had their first attempt from a free kick. Marshall Burke stepped up from 44 yards, but his effort had power but no direction as it sailed over George Murray-Jones’ goal.

Despite the Black Cats pushing for the next goal, they could not keep us out at the other end, when we added to the score.

A pass was fizzed to the right hand side where Oboavwoduo twisted and played a pass to the edge of the box, where Sunderland left acres of space again, for Isaiah Dada-Mascoll to sweep a strike into the back of the net as City scored three inside 25 minutes.

Moments later Sunderland put their stamp on the fixture to reduce the deficit.

Tom Watson broke away down their left on a counter attack, and chipped a ball to the far post to Jake Waters who raised a boot and tapped in to raise the confidence of the Wearside team.

But our heads did not drop, as Heskey had a skewed shot roll agonisingly past the far post before the striker had an attempt clawed out for a corner.

After a sustained period of pressure from the visitors, Heskey drove into the box before laying it off to Ndala, who brought the ball inside and curled a sensational right-footed effort into the corner of the far post, as we went into half time with a healthy advantage.

Sunderland came out revived in the second half and tested Murray-Jones’ goal early. A free kick bounced past the post and got the City keeper worried.

Our youngsters were keeping the ball well in the half of our visitors, but left ourselves exposed on a number of occasions for the counter attack, and this was capitalised on.

It was the same partnership again for Sunderland’s second, as Watson crossed the ball from the right, and Waters was unmarked at the far post for a second time to tap in.

Minutes later, Oliver Bainbridge nearly bundled in a superbly delivered free kick, but to the fortunes of the City back line, the ball travelled wide of the post.

It was an intense end to the match, with whole hearted tackles from both teams who knew what this match entails.

As the referee blew his whistle for the final time, applause greeted the title winning City youngsters.

HOW WE LINED UP

Ben Wilkinson selected a strong line up. George Murray-Jones started between the sticks, with a back four of Jacob Wright, Jahmai Simpson-Pusey, Max Alleyne and Tom Galvez protecting him.

Isaiah Dada-Mascoll was positioned as a deep lying midfielder, with captain Nico O’Reilly and Justin Oboavwoduo pushing further forward in a midfield three.

Jaden Heskey led the line as the no.9, with Ashton Muir and Joel Ndala supporting closely on each flank.

Manchester City U18s

XI: Murray-Jones, Wright, Simpson-Pusey, Alleyne, Galvez, Dada-Mascoll, Muir, Oboavwoduo, Heskey, O’Reilly (C), Ndala

SUBS: Gray, Grant, Okeke, Harrison, Alfa-Ruprecht

Sunderland U18s

XI: Young, Lavery, Bainbridge, Cain, Fieldson (C), Johnson, Cotcher, Burke, Waters, Middlemas, Watson

SUBS: Bell, Jones, Dowling, Robertson, Metcalf

WHAT IT MEANS

A City victory sees us lift our fourth consecutive Under-18s Premier League North title.

After landing our first league triumph in that run in 2019/20 season on points-per-game basis when the season was cancelled for COVID, we’ve gone on to claim the title in the following three seasons.

WHAT’S NEXT

Ben Wilkinson’s side still have one game to go, as we end our title winning season at Derby County next weekend.

Kick-off is scheduled for 12:30 (UK) on Saturday 29 April

The game will be available to watch live on CITY+ and Recast for subscribers.