Scarlett scores five in big win over Newport

Dane Scarlett bagged FIVE goals as our Under-18s recovered from 2-0 down to beat Newport County 6-2 in the FA Youth Cup at Hotspur Way on Tuesday afternoon.

We dominated the opening stages but found ourselves behind after the EFL Youth Alliance side scored with their first two shots of the game through Lewys Twamley and Sonny Lewis.

But a perfect hat-trick from Scarlett – header, left foot, right foot – turned the third-round tie on its head in the second half and after Roshaun Mathurin added his name to the scoresheet, the relentless centre-forward notched up two more goals in the closing stages – a penalty and a sumptuous stoppage-time volley – to complete a resounding win.

In our first Under-18 outing since 19 December, we imposed ourselves on the game from an early stage but some sloppy play at the back gifted the visitors the advantage. First, Twamley was able to evade the attentions of Jeremy Kzeyu and Marqes Muir to squirm a shot past Thimothee Lo-Tutala at his near post on 22 minutes, before Lewis ran onto Bright Harrison’s pass along the 18-yard line to stroke into the bottom corner four minutes later.

Coach Matt Taylor switched things up with Kallum Cesay moving from right-back to operate more centrally – his energetic running always a threat – but the Welsh side kept bodies behind the ball and made it difficult for us to break them down. Scarlett headed Dante Cassanova’s cross from the right against the post on 34 minutes while Yago Santiago arrowed a shot just wide, but we finally found a breakthrough four minutes before the interval when Scarlett nodded Nile John’s wide free-kick home from close range.

Newport might have restored their two-goal cushion on the stroke of half-time when Lo-Tutala gave the ball away inside his own box, but the keeper atoned for his error by deflecting Ryan Hillier’s shot wide for a corner.

Cesay, who had earlier gone close with a header, fired just over the bar as we started the second period purposefully and we were soon back on level terms, the same player ferrying Mathurin’s pass on into the box where Scarlett swivelled and lashed home on his left foot with 51 minutes played. Half-time substitute Jamie Donley dragged a shot across the face of goal and wide before Scarlett completed his third hat-trick of the season with a deft flick with the inside of his right foot from Mathurin’s 72nd-minute cross.

Newport never looked like getting back into the contest at that stage and we pulled away with Mathurin driving into the box from the right before drilling home on 77 minutes, although Lo-Tutala did still have to make a smart save down to his right to tip away Jack Karadogan’s free-kick for the visitors.

It was 5-2 in the 84th minute as Scarlett converted from the penalty spot after being tripped in the area by Callum Ryan-Phillips and the scoring was completed three minutes into added time when the front man produced a fine volley from Mathurin’s cross to leave goalkeeper Evan Ovendale with no chance.

‘The main aim for us today was to win the game and we did that’

Under-18s Coach Matt Taylor said: “The reaction to going two goals behind was good but the first-half performance wasn’t at the levels that we’ve seen from our players for much of the first half of the season – it was a performance that lacked energy and lacked desire. You can forgive mistakes but we didn’t have the key fundamentals in our first-half performance today, so that was the disappointing thing for us.

“It was all credit to Newport that they took their chances and deservedly on the basis of the play went in leading at half-time, but it was then a case of the boys upping their energy levels and making sure that they did the basics that are expected of them before you bring their talent into the equation. In the second half we did that, fortunately we got the result but I thought from the first half to the second half, there was too much of a contrast in our performance.

“When I look at the positives to come out of the game, obviously Dane scoring five goals is fantastic, Roshaun was very good with his performance and there were a couple of others like Nile John and Kallum Cesay who came out of the game the right way, but the main aim for us today was to win the game and we did that.”

FA Youth Cup update

The Football Association this afternoon issued the following statement, confirming that the FA Youth Cup has now been suspended due to the pandemic: “We can confirm our decision to temporarily suspend the 2020/21 FA Youth Cup and have discussed this with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport and the competing clubs.

“The health and wellbeing of players and staff are of paramount importance and we intend to resume the national competition once the UK Government’s current national COVID-19 lockdown concludes and it is deemed safer for clubs to travel.

“The FA Youth Participation & Development Committee, which is responsible for management of the competition, will continue to review the situation and we will provide further updates at the earliest opportunity.”

Match data

Goals: Spurs – Scarlett 41, 51, 72, 84 (pen), 90+3, Mathurin 77; Newport County – Twamley 22, Lewis 26.

Yellow cards: Spurs – John 61; Newport County – Livermore 61.

Referee: Lawrence Torz-Brown.

Venue: Hotspur Way, Enfield.

Weather: Light cloud, gentle breeze, six degrees.