Our U18 team’s final home match of this season proved to be a disappointing affair.
There was no teamsheet (again) and the tannoy hasn’t worked since November, but that’s OK, as there was no one present to do any announcements, anyway. The academy experience lately seems to be taking the form of an article of faith in the face of reason. If we’re genuinely serious about a return to Cat 1, there are some basic elements that need to be properly addressed (the quality of our recent external recruits being one of them).
Back to the game… We fielded a very young side, with only one player – captain Ben Phillips – being a 2nd year scholar and 6 players from the U16s featuring in the squad. Alfie Jones and Bobby Lewis were just back from recent Cymru U17s duty in the week.
It was probably a case of needs as must, today’s formation was 3-5-2: Jakub Nowak; Dempsey Singer, Ben Phillips (captain), Jack May (s – Alffi Hughes 78m); Billy Clarke (s – Ioan Johnston 65m), Bobo Evans, Alfie Jones, Bobby Lewis, Elis Thomas (s – Rio Hassan 78m); Josiah Kallicharan, Harvey Gray (s – Ifan Harding 65m).
No goalkeeper substitute today.
All the action from Landore is captured in the full match image gallery.
The Sheffield United coach was Jim O’Brien, formerly a Scottish winger who played against our first team with Barnsley a decade or so ago and has a good reputation in academy football.
We seem to have become slow starters who concede early goals. Today’s came on 5 minutes and was pretty jaw dropping. Enough said. United got a second on 14 minutes, left winger Eyob-Abraha getting to the byline on the left and setting up centre forward Shephard with a simple chance to convert from close range.
That gave our youngsters a major challenge. Ben Phillips was booked blocking another breakaway. On the flanks Elis Thomas and Billy Clarke were finding space to run at the visitors’ defence and there were some neat passages of play from Alfie Jones, Bobby Lewis and Bobo Evans, but nothing was really sticking up front and the Blades looked quite comfortable around the park.
We had a lucky escape when what would have been a 3rd visitors’ goal was ruled out on 35 minutes, the referee judging a challenge on Jakub Nowak to be a foul.
Unusually, we completed the half without having a single effort on goal.
Centre half Jack May had a header off target from a corner just after half-time, but ominously United continued to create chances with fast moving breaks that exposed our rearguard. Coubrough shot wide, Eyob-Abrah – who’d been a thorn in our side for much of the game – made space for himself to shoot direct at Nowak. Right winger Lamine Sidibe (no relation to our one-time striker from the Hollins era) tested Nowak again from another sharp piece of attacking play and he went close once more minutes later.
United went 4-0 up in quick succession. Both were really poor goals.
Hay subsequently struck the bar with a free kick, we applied more changes and, quite out of the blue, got a goal back on 82 minutes when Ioan Johnston showed great close skill and awareness in the area to thread a ball through for Kallicharan to rifle into the far corner of the net from a wide angle.
Sheffield United were workmanlike, well-organised. This was a tough fixture for the squad assembled today. We were clearly missing players who, on another day, could have helped deal with the challenges and guide some of the younger element through. Today’s youthful contributions from the likes of Bobby Lewis, Ifan Harding, Alffi Hughes, Dempsey Singer, Ioan Johnston and Rio Hassan will ideally bear fruit as and when these players step up to further contests at this level next season.
The U18s drop to 7th in the Southern U18s table, the Blades remain 5th in the Northern U18s section.
Feature image credit: Majestic Media