Williams and Moore secure big win for Under-21s

Jaden Williams added to Mikey Moore's opener with a well-taken hat-trick to lead our Under-21s to a fine victory against Blackburn Rovers at Stevenage on Friday night.

In a great team performance full of attacking intent, it was Moore who provided the spark, firing home from distance out of virtually nothing, before Williams took over, coming up with an impressive low finish on the stroke of half-time and netting twice more in the second period to complete his treble.

The 4-0 victory was no more than we deserved, with Blackburn restricted to just a couple of brief openings as Aaron Maguire and his defence - which included centre-back James Rowswell on his first Premier League 2 start - kept a clean sheet to rubber-stamp our return to winning ways.

With 16 first team appearances under his belt so far this season, Moore's influence was evident, the attacking midfielder frequently taking players on down the left flank and getting to the byline before sending some menacing low deliveries into the area, one of which led to Dante Cassanova firing just over in the opening stages. Damola Ajayi and Moore subsequently tested Blackburn goalkeeper Nicholas Michalski before Moore conjured up the breakthrough on 27 minutes, collecting Max McKnight's pass, roaming in from the left and, with seemingly nothing on, cracking a low shot inside the near post from 20 yards.

Rowswell had a couple of near misses while the hard-working Reiss-Alexander Russell-Denny could often be seen driving forward with purpose from central midfield - he would end up setting up all three of Williams' goals during the remainder of the game. The first one saw him take advantage after James Edmondson slipped in possession midway inside our half, with the ex-Chelsea midfielder surging forward before feeding Williams, who fired into the far bottom corner with pinpoint accuracy a minute before the break.

The mid-season signing was unlucky not to get on the scoresheet himself moments after the restart as he arrowed a shot just off-target, but Blackburn provided a warning shot a few minutes later, Harrison Wood's low attempt cleared off the line by Max Robson following a corner. In the wake of a corner at the other end, though, we doubled our lead on 62 minutes. Michalski could only punch the delivery upwards, Tyrell Ashcroft and Rowswell both went for the second ball before Russell-Denny knocked it back across the six-yard box for Williams to force home from close range. And with a quarter-of-an-hour left, Russell-Denny played Williams in behind the defence once more, with the striker emphatically hammering home on his right foot to complete his hat-trick.

Blackburn substitute Joe Boggan headed a good chance over the bar a few minutes later, but there was no way through for the visitors, with Oli Irow a whisker away from adding to our lead at the end of the game when he drilled just past the upright. All in all, it was a great night's work.

'We were much more clinical'

Under-21s Coach Wayne Burnett was delighted with the victory and praised goalscorers Williams and Moore: "I'm really pleased for Jaden, he works tirelessly and he scored three good goals," he told SPURSPLAY. "Mikey scored an excellent goal, we know what he's capable of with his quality and he showed that tonight. I thought it was a very good team performance overall. I felt we dominated throughout and scored four very good goals. I'm really pleased that there were some good individual performances and overall we're very pleased for the team as a collective. The players have shown the right application and the right effort. As I've said previously, we haven't played that badly, we just haven't capitalised on our chances at times and that's been the difference for us not getting the results that we want, but I felt tonight we were much more clinical and obviously came away with four goals."

Match data

Goals: Spurs - Moore 27, Williams 44, 62, 75.

Yellow cards: Spurs - Williams 64; Blackburn - Litherland 53, Pratt 70.

Referee: Oliver Mackey.

Venue: Lamex Stadium, Stevenage.

Weather: Partly cloudy, light winds, three degrees.

Attendance: 346.