A brace from Nico O’Reilly plus further strikes from Dire Mebude, Daniel Ogwuru and Luca Barrington secured us the three points in an end-to-end clash at the City Football Academy.
What happened
City got the scoring underway early on when Mebude darted past Villa right-back Harvey Rhoades and produced a fine low finish into the bottom corner from inside the box.
We kept the pressure on and doubled our lead when Ogwuru tapped home from close-range after Kane Taylor’s initial effort had been saved.
It looked as though Ben Wilkinson’s side were in complete control, but the game was turned on its head with two quickfire goals from Villa’s Tommi O’Reilly and Xahrel Reddin levelled the scores.
City kept piling the pressure on, and were rewarded when O’Reilly deservedly restored our lead just before half time after a sumptuous cushioned touch from Mebude had teed up the midfielder.
We quickly re-established control after the break, as O’Reilly was on hand to tap home on the rebound after Joel Ndala’s effort had crashed off the crossbar.
And we soon put ourselves out of sight when substitute Barrington found the net from a tight angle inside the box, putting the result beyond doubt.
How we lined up
George Murray-Jones was named between the sticks, with captain Rico Lewis, Issac Smith, Jadel Katongo and Matthew Whittingham.
Mahamadou Susoho sat deep in midfield behind Kane Taylor and O’Reilly whilst our attacking line-up consisted of Mebude, Ogwuru and Joel Ndala.
what it means
The victory gets our U18 Premier League cup campaign off to a winning start, sending us top of our group on goal difference.
Our group also contains Crystal Palace and Liverpool.
up next
Our U18s will return to league action next week, as we take on Middlesborough at home.
That U18 Premier League clash kicks off at 12:00 pm (UK) on Saturday 25th September.
