Our U18 completed an astonishing recovery to completely overwhelm Brimingham 5-1 at a sunny Landore. Thomas Woodward took the honours with a hat-trick. Yori Griffith pulled all the strings in an outstanding 2nd half performance off the bench.
We made full use of our substitutes and notably fielded a comparatively much stronger squad than on Saturday against Fleetwood. Callum Jones was promoted to the U21 and a number of our U16s are likely to have had education duties.
We started 4-4-2 and went to 3 at the back and with 2 wing backs midway through the 2nd half: Tom Wright; Osian Williams (s – Billy Clarke 61m), Ben Phillips, Kiel Higginson, Callum Deacon; Ramon Rees-Siso, Harlan Perry (captain) (s – Yori Griffith 46m), Milo Robinson (s – Alex Godfrey 61m), Caio Ifans (s – Wahab Ojetero 71m); Ollie Anderson (s – Harvey Gray 71m), Thomas Woodward.
Last season’s PDL2 North league champions Birmingham were coached by Martyn Ollerenshaw. McClusker wore 14 rather than 10 in the teamsheet. Although Callum Deacon was named as our captain, Harlan Perry took skipper duties for the 1st half. Referee was the familiar figure of Zak Demetriades, who didn’t have too much to officiate in what was a fast paced but generally cleanly contested encounter.
It was a fairly even opening half, Swansea creating more chances, but the visitors going ahead on 9 minutes when the lively centre forward Tobey Ugorji darted into space to collect a quick throw-in and made room for himself to get a shot away that found the corner of our net. Ugorji has already made something of a name for himself with prolific goalscoring over the past season.
Swans keeper Tom Wright stopped Birmingham going 2 ahead shortly after with a smart save from Maddox’s shot.
Anderson was responsible for the majority of our opportunities but overall we had very little penetration to complement our patient buildup play.
Harlan Perry, who didn’t appear to be fully fit, was replaced by Yori Griffith on half-time and this triggered a remarkable turnaround for our team. Such a calm and elegant performer on the ball, Yori transformed our play, both dominating proceedings with his own contributions and bringing colleagues into play with clever distribution.
Thomas Woodward in particular started seeing a lot more of the ball and Caio Ifans was enjoying a great deal of success on the left side of attack. Woodward and Phillips were denied by defensive blocks in quick succession and Griffith himself couldn’t keep a shot down when Ifans lofted in an inviting cross. The early 2nd half dominance paid off on 58 minutes when Woodward shot through the keeper after Ifans had set him up.
Yori Griffith struck a post as Swansea continued to find space in and around Birmingham’s area and Ramon Rees-Siso also went close with a long range effort. Birmingham seemed quite unable to deal with this change in fortunes.
We went to 3 at the back with Ojetero and Clarke providing wing back threats. Ojetero provided an assist for Billy Clarke to put the Swans ahead on 80 minutes. A flurry of late goals for Harvey Gray (86m) and Woodward – twice in a minute deep into added time – put the final flourish on a dominant 2nd half display. Yori Griffith even had time to strike the post again in an influential performance.
Yori was certainly the major difference between the sides, although it’s worth observing that – after an uncomfortable start – both Kiel Higginson and Ben Phillips fully got to grips with the threatening Ugorji, who saw very little of the ball after half-time.