Our U21 (or mostly our U18 representing our U21) went down to a 4-0 defeat to visiting Stoke City in today’s Premier League Cup tie at Landore.
We started brightly enough, before Stoke gradually took control, scoring initially through a 21t minute penalty from centre forward Nathan Lowe. Lowe got a 2nd on 45 minutes after we lost the ball in midfield and right back Reddin was put through to deliver a killer ball across the face of our goal.
Lowe could quite easily have got a hat-trick before half-time, but it took until the 80th minute before he was presented with a gift right in front of goal to put Stoke 3-0 up. His 4th came 4 minutes from time to round off an impressive performance.
Our youngsters struggled to retain possession, let alone create chances. Stoke’s overall comparative age advantage, mobility and physique meant they frequently simply played around us. They were particularly dangerous from the many corners they forced in 1st half, varying the delivery but always crowding keeper Remy Mitchell, who had his work cut out to get to centres.
Still, we kept going and both Geoff Bony and Sam Parker went close in the 2nd half. Centre half and skipper Wasiri Williams – a good 6 years older than a number of his team mates – kept things together reasonably well in the circumstances, but it was a tough afternoon for our team. Despite the challenges on the day, it was good to see Aimar Govea, Jada Mawongo, Cameron Llewellyn and Rohan Davies get some action.
Stoke’s Matty Baker, who’s represented Wales alongside a number of our academy players at U16 through U21 levels, had a very decent game at centre half. A number of his family were present in the stand.
The visitors were coached by former Wrexham winger Kevin ‘Rooster’ Russell.
Swans line-up (3-4-2-1): Remy Mitchell; Arthur Parker, Wasiri Williams, Kai Ludvigsen; Sam Parker (s Cameron Llewellyn 90m), Dan Watts (s Jada Mawongo 87m), Sam Leverett, Zane Myers (s Aimar Govea 67m); Tarrelle Whittaker, Corey Hurford; Geoff Bony (s Rohan Davies 90m).
Arthur Parker moved into midfield and Jada Mawongo took his RCB post when Dan Watts was substituted.