A decent workout for our U21 this evening against a workmanlike and determined Trefelin opposition who played in a competitive spirit throughout.
There were some familiar faces in the Ynys Park squad – including Lee Trundle, Shaun MacDonald, Daniel Alfei and Steve Berry. Our team and squad comprised a mix of U21, U18 and trialists, with a couple of those from Friday given a further chance to impress.
As with Friday, there seems to be a working preference for 4 3 3. On a bright summer evening, we started: Evan Watts; Zac Jeanes, Arthur Parker, Theo Robinson, Seb Dabrowski; Thomas Woodward, Mitchell Bates, Ben Lloyd; Kevin Hanratty, James Graham, Liam Smith.
Mitchell Bates skippered the side vigorously. Ben Lloyd and Liam Smith looked very lively and asked a lot of questions of the home defence in a busy first half.
We rarely looked in trouble, although Trefelin conjured up one isolated and open chance after Trundle bullied one of our defenders into a mistake, but Trundle’s partner swept the resultant snapshot wide. A minute later, the Swans took the lead from a corner when a Trefelin defender deflected a touch from Parker beyond his own keeper. A flurry of goals before and after half-time gave us a 4 goal advantage.
Half-time substitutions saw Ben Hughes take goalkeeping duties and Friday’s trialist Wahab Ojetoro came into join Arthur Parker in the centre of defence, with Theo Robinson moving to left back until he had to leave the field injured. We played the last 20 minutes with 10 men.
At that point, we’d already made sweeping substitutions: Harry Jones, Callum Deacon, Iestyn Jones, Jacob Cook, Josh Pescatore, Ramon Rees-Siso, Josh Thomas, Sammy Henia-Kamau and another Friday trialist Alex Calabro taking to the pitch on the hour.
Josh Pescatore completed the scoring for the visitors before Trefelin got a late consolation with a well taken curling shot from outside the box.
Jeanes is from Worthing, Robinson is a Wales U19 cap from Nottingham Forest, Hanratty and Graham are Scots from Aberdeen and Rangers respectively. Jeanes caught the eye at right back, his fellow trialists each had their moments,
Ojetoro exhibiting a lot of confidence with probing passes from the back.
Goalscoring: 0-1 (own goal 29m); 0-2 (Jeanes 41m); 0-3 (Woodward 43m); 0-4 (Hanratty 47m); 0-5 (Pescatore 66m); 1-5 (89m).
Feature Image Credit: Majestic Media