Well, this was another academy game we really should not have lost, but tonight our U21 continued the recent theme of throwing away bright positions by conceding soft goals at key times.
Tellingly, that’s the 5th time our U21 have conceded 4 goals already this season. The 4-3 defeat could be put down to a number of reasons – not taking our chances and rank poor defending among them – but principally we lost to a very good Aston Villa side because we simply couldn’t manage the game out.
It will read like sour grapes, but it is worth noting that Villa’s centre forward Kobei Moore shouldn’t really still have been on the pitch to score his crucial 2 goals. He’d already been cautioned for a wild challenge on Kian Jenkins when he upended Filip Lissah minutes later with the ball nowhere to be seen. The referee proved to be extremely charitable and let him off with a warning. That didn’t turn out well for us.
The plus points came in the form of a strong purple patch just after half-time where we played some cracking and incisive attacking football, going 3-1 up with Sam Parker playing an impressive role in both goals. Sloppy defending let
Villa back in again within minutes and after that the game became something of an end to end battle, with Villa being more ruthless and taking advantage of some cataclysmic defending on our part.
Could we have done anything differently? Well, of course we could have been more clinical in front of goal and perhaps we could have refreshed our hard working midfield much earlier to keep pace with Villa’s more aggressive early substitutions, that meant the visitors were never truly out of the contest. Despite all of the opportunities we created and the commanding 3-1 position we attained, there was always the fear that Villa could score each time they broke.
It was entertaining fare in frequent downpours, for sure – and Villa played their part – but coach Anthony Wright will be upset with the way in which we carelessly threw away this tie after putting so much effort in.
In all the ding dong melodrama, Filip Lissah and Kristian Fletcher made striking contributions. Fletcher’s holdup and one touch play really is delightful.
Our line-up in a 3-4-2-1 formation: Remy Mitchell; Kai Ludvigsen, Filip Lissah, Richard Faakye; Joe Thomas, Mitchell Bates, Kian Jenkins (s – Josh Carey 83m), Sam Parker; Liam Smith, Kristian Fletcher; Kyrell Wilson. Unused substitutes: Kit Margetson, Maliq Cadogan, Jack Stafford, Dan Watts.
Goals: Fletcher 1-0 23m; Rowe (not the teamsheet’s Lowe) 1-1 27m; Parker 2-1 55m; Wilson 3-1 74m; Richards 3-2 77m; Moore 3-3 87m; Moore 3-4 90+8m.
