With some apologies for the late report – the only excuse is that I’ve done a fair bit of travelling over the past couple of days – here’s a brief narrative of what turned out to be a thoroughly memorable win over Category One side Leeds United at York.
The match was played in York at the LNER Stadium. I’d been to the previous Bootham Crescent ground a while ago, Not unlike the Vetch, that old ground was homely, rather ramshackle and bang in the centre of the city. The new ground, which York City have been playing at since 2021, is lost in an anonymous sprawling shopping precinct 3 miles outside the city. Having been unable to catch a bus from the centre, I got out of a taxi in the precinct and went for a quick pint in the Hollywood Bowling Alley, asked where the ground was and was not at all surprised when the bar lady told me she didn’t know. It turned out it was about 50 yards away.
The stewarding was fine, no problem finding a decent view near the halfway line. Only one side of the stadium was open, which was perfectly adequate for the attendance of 900 or so.
Our U-18s had benefited from the weekend runout at U-21 level in the 5-2 win at Millwall after our last U-18s fixture the weekend before at Landore was called off.
We lined up in quite a fluid formation, varying during the game between 4-3-3, 3-5-2 and 4-1-4-1. Carter Heywood was the deepest of our midfielders: Tom Wright; Billy Clarke, Brogan Popham, Ben Phillips (s – Jack May 111m), Caio Ifans (s – Kaven Bloniarczyk 91m); Carter Heywood (s – Bobo Evans 91m); Alfie Jones (s – Lukas Murphy 115m), Harlan Perry (captain); Kai Rhodes (s – Alex Godfrey 67m), Josiah Kallicharan (s – Harvey Gray – 67m), Callum Jones.
Unused sub: Jakub Nowak (g/k)
Leeds, who’ve got a good recent record in this competition took the game to the young Swans and often pushed four players forward, including two tricky wingers who gave us problems throughout the match.
We took an encouraging early lead on 8 minutes when our left winger Callum Jones collected a Swans clearance just inside the Leeds half and set off on a typical mazy run, cutting inside hesitant opponents to line up a shot from the edge of the area to put the Swans one up.
Although Harlan Perry shot over on the 20 minute mark, we were pretty much under the cosh for the majority of the first half and had to defend really resolutely and occasionally a little agriculturally. Leeds built up patiently, showed good movement and gave us plenty of problems on both flanks. Left winger Mensah shot wide from a good position and striker Callum Mills missed a sitter in front of goal on 35 minutes, Alker, Philpott and Firth all spurned clear opportunities and we just about made it to half-time still in front.
Right winger Njinko struck the crossbar shortly after the interval, Mills went close again and it seemed inevitable, if rather unfortunate, when the equaliser came on 66 minutes – Mensah’s shot deflecting off Carter Heywood to wrong foot Tom Wright.
The Swans side was taking active coaching from Jon Beale and Joe Roberts and a couple of substitutions were made almost immediately after the goal to re-energise a team that had been under constant pressure. Alex Godfrey and Harvey Gray came on for Kai Rhodes and Josiah Kallicharan, who hadn’t been seeing much of the ball. Godfrey in particular added some fresh legs on the right to relieve the team. Leeds continued to press, but our durable youngsters made it to full-time without conceding, even if it felt a bit precarious at times. We finished the 90 minutes with a fresh zest and Alfie Jones even managed to hit the bar direct from a corner in added time.
We continued to refresh the side going into extra time, Kaven Bloniarczyk replacing Caio Ifans – who’d had a royal battle with Njinko – and Bobo Evans coming on for Carter Heywood. Billy Clarke moved across to left back with Bloniarczyk slotting in at right back, Leeds elected to retain the same eleven, seemingly confident they’d get due reward for their efforts. Mills was off target again and somehow Wright scrambled clear a loose ball from a corner. We were looking really leggy in the second period of extra time. Skipper Harlan Perry was limping heavily and booked late on for a tired tackle, but admirably saw the game out. Alfie Jones had to receive assistance for cramp.
Callum Jones, who so often creates opportunities out of nothing, had a couple of late sorties but couldn’t find a way through. As the clock ticked down towards a penalty shoot-out, Billy Clarke seized control of the ball inside the Leeds half and set off on a belligerent shimmying run into the Leeds area, avoided some weary challenges and converted cleanly to clinch the game 3 minutes into added time. An amazing end to a really entertaining and demanding cup tie.
There was still enough time for Leeds left winger Mensah to get himself sent off for a wild kick at Harvey Gray soon after play resumed.
The entire squad should be rightly proud of its achievements. The whole team displayed great resilience and belief. Our game management and use of substitutes was spot-on. At the end of the match, the players were understandably jubilant. If truth be told, so was I. Swopping notes afterwards with a fellow Swans fan, it’s evident we’ve not been to the 5th Round of the FA Youth Cup since 1960, the first year the Swans entered the competition.