Our U21 stuttered a little to a 3-1 victory this evening – not the most convincing of performances, but we’ve been spoiled lately. Our youngsters still managed to hit the woodwork 3 times and, while the display had moments of sloppiness, we created lots of chances throughout the game.
Line-up (4-1-4-1): Remi Mitchell; Joe Thomas, Harry Jones, Ben Blythe, Kian Jenkins; Azeem Abdulai; Josh Thomas (sub Tiv Rushesha 59m), Joel Cotterill, Mitchell Bates (sub Ben Lloyd 59m), Corey Hurford (sub Liam Smith 59m); Ruben Davies (sub Iwan Morgan 70m).
The match started 15 minutes late as the visitors were held up by an accident on the M4.
We went ahead on 9 minutes when Josh Thomas bravely got his head to a return cross from Kian Jenkins in the melee that followed Ruben Davies striking a post from an initial lay-off by Corey Hurford. Palmer-Houlden missed a couple of clear chances for the visitors before we pulled 2 clear on 18 minutes with a simple but clever corner routine – a line of Swansea defenders drew their markers into the 6 yard box leaving Joe Thomas alone at the far post to slot home Kian Jenkins’s deep cross.
Both sides continued to create and miss opportunities – at one point, Mitchell’s point blank save from City’s rangy striker Ollie Thomas ricocheted back toward goal only for Harry Jones to desperately get the ball clear. At the other end, a fine move involving Abdulai and Josh Thomas resulted in Ruben Davies’s close range shot being diverted wide off the line. A Bristol City defender also somehow managed to repel Davies when Abdulai squared the ball across goal for what appeared to be a certain goal.
Our 2nd half substitutions reenergised us just when Bristol seemed to be getting on top. It was still something of a surprise though when the visitors conceded a cheap penalty on 69 minutes, allowing Joel Cotterill to slam home Swansea’s 3rd of the evening.
Palmer-Houlden, who was booked for his troubles, finally got on the scoresheet 4 minutes from time to make the result look a little more respectable.
The positives were a couple of very strong outings by our central defensive duo Jones and Blythe. That’s the best I’ve seen Harry Jones play this season – he really came out of his shell today and took great responsibility against a lively visiting attack. His partnership with Ben Blythe worked well. There were times however when we created our own problems – that frustrating goal-kick routine was back in style and was the source of quite a few avoidable near misses.
Corey Hurford looked sharp in the time he had on the pitch and both Ben Lloyd and Liam Smith made telling contributions in the 2nd half.
Azeem Abdulai had a typically busy display. It was also encouraging to see Iwan Morgan get a runout – on another day, he’d have scored, his time will come again.
For completists, the OS report skips 3 further Bristol City substitutes coming into action on 73 minutes: Anderson for Leeson, Hewlett for Backwell and Churchley for Ollie Thomas. Wales U19 defender Zac Bell played at right back for City.
A decent turnout of supporters on a pleasant evening.