Winning start in Under-18 Premier League Cup

Defender Brooklyn Lyons-Foster won a penalty for our opening goal and then headed in a crucial second as our Under-18s beat Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-1 in our first group match of this season’s Under-18 Premier League Cup on Saturday.

Tidy in his work at centre-back alongside the solid Maxwell Statham, it was at the other end of the pitch where Lyons-Foster had the biggest impact – and we needed it in the end, as a series of openings spurned and shots blocked in the box prevented his attacking team-mates from notching up a much bigger winning margin.

In Wolves’ faces for the majority of the game at Hotspur Way, our 2-0 lead was halved six minutes from time when Austin Samuels lashed in from a rare chance for the visitors, setting up a competitive finish. But 2-1 wasn’t a fair reflection of our attacking endeavours as, for all Rayan Clarke’s bursts into space down the left flank or the hard graft at centre-forward of Rodel Richards, goalkeeper Jamie Pardington’s net was only breached twice.

Richards rounded the stopper but saw his shot cleared off the line by namesake defender Lewis Richards inside two minutes but it wasn’t until the 24th minute that we went ahead. Maurizio Pochettino picked out Lyons-Foster in the box after a corner was cleared, Ray O’Sullivan barged him off the ball and Harvey White stepped up to send Pardington the wrong way.

We went through spells in the first half where our energy and pressure seemed to relent, but how we didn’t add to our advantage in the three minutes after half-time is anyone’s guess as Clarke, Richards and marauding left-back Dennis Cirkin were all denied from inside the box, while Phoenix Patterson floated a shot wide during a spell of heavy pressure.

Wolves still carried a threat, though, as White and Statham made goal-saving interventions in the moments that followed. Jeremie Mukendi added some direct running in from the right flank off the bench, but the nearest he went to scoring was when Pardington pulled off a double save from him and Patterson shortly after the hour mark.

The second goal arrived on 69 minutes as Lyons-Foster, who had tried to steer a header on target moments beforehand, this time got it right in the air with a purposeful leap at the near post to convert Patterson’s corner. White seemed destined to score a third when he fired a free-kick towards the top corner but Pardington pulled off a superb save to deny him.

However, with just over five to play, a couple of lapses in concentration allowed Taylor Perry to latch onto the ball on Wolves’ left and pick out Samuels in the box to lash home. A comeback seemed unlikely, though, as we maintained our control of the game, with substitute Chay Cooper going close a couple of times in the concluding stages.

Key moment

Lyons-Foster’s header with just over 20 minutes to play could have been the catalyst for the opening of the floodgates, but as things transpired it was the goal that decided the game. While they didn’t carry the constant attacking threats that we did, the visitors did well to withstand our pressure and edge themselves back into the contest in the closing stages, making Lyons-Foster’s goal crucial in the end.

“In that moment when you’re in control, you have to take your chances but we didn’t in open play, we had a lot of chances that we should have scored but obviously Brook has popped up with a set-piece goal which is really pleasing because it’s the exact movements and delivery that we’ve been working on,” said Under-18s Coach Matt Wells.

“We should have put the game to bed with a third or fourth afterwards but if you leave the game open, that’s what can happen – we conceded a really poor goal, playing too many consecutive backwards passes because of the way they were pressing up the pitch. That was disappointing because you go from dominating the chances to having to really hang on and defend our penalty area with our lives towards the end.”

Coach’s view

Matt felt the 20-minute period after half-time, when the score was still 1-0, was where we could have really pressed home the advantage: “In the first half we controlled the game but didn’t use the ball as well as we could have,” he said. “It was a different test for us as Wolves tried to play out and build their attacks from the back and to be honest we haven’t faced that yet in the league, but I thought in the second half, between 45 and 65 minutes, we pressed and showed desire to win the ball high up the pitch to create chances.

“I thought RJ (Rodel Richards) did well today. We were able to play in off of him and from there he put the attacks out wide so he’ll take a lot of confidence from the way he performed and even in that spell after we conceded, it was nice to see the mentality of the group and we managed the game well when it mattered, we won our headers in the box and Harvey White was instrumental in those last few minutes, making a lot of clearances, so that was good to see. The players are determined to do well in this competition after getting to the final last year so it’s good to get the win today.”