City U21’s 3 Manchester City U21’s 2
Report by Ian Bason
With the U21’s having secured a top half finish and qualifying for the Elite section in the reorganised format for the 2014/15 season, the winner of tonight’s game would move into a play off position, albeit Man City have a game in hand.
City’s starting 11 saw one change from the excellent 4 – 0 away in against Arsenal with George Taft replacing Kennedy in the centre of defence. Having had a formation change in the first team over recent games, the U21 side seemed to line up in a 4-2-3-1 system, with Blyth supported by Panayiotou in the centre, with Hopper wide left and Dodoo wide right, although for the early part of the game Hopper seemed to push up far more than Dodoo.
There wasn’t much goal mouth action in the early part of the game, with Man City the slightly better of the two sides. Our first shot, in the 6th minute, saw a fairly tame effort from Panayiotou go wide.
The City defence started to cause its own problems in the 10th minute when Taft and Elder went for the same header leading to a Mac City corner that came to nothing.
In the 20th minute, Hopper won a tussle from Taft’s long ball forward, but Blyth failed to get on the end of the cross, however the City formation didn’t seemed to be working and the bench switched Dodoo and Hopper on the wings and Dodoo quickly went on a strong run down the left but over hit the cross. A minute later Panayiotou created a good chance, but Blyth blasted wide from an offside position.
However just as City seemed to be getting more of a grip on the game, Taft sliced a clearance which Cole pounced onto and finished well to give Man City the lead. City nearly equalised a minute later but Man City’s keeper Lawlor was quick off this line to block Hopper.
Following a booking for Watson, Man City nearly scored a second when the lively Bytyqi crossed but Cole could not convert the chance under pressure from Sesay. Another move created by Bytyqi resulted in a blocked shot going for a corner, and the half finished with a Dodoo cross which cleared both keepr Lawlor and Blyth, so Man City took a 1-0 lead into the interval, with Bytyqi the stand out player of the half.
The second half commenced with 2 changes, Man City brought on Tasende to replace the injured Facey (the injury made worse by an attempted foul where he came off worse), while City brought on Michael Cain to replace McCourt. With that change, Panayiotou moved to wide right, with Hopper playing centrally much closer to Blyth.
Cain commenced the half with an excellent cross to Dodoo whose shot was saved, however Man City responded with another good run through by Bytyqi, who certainly passes defenders as though they aren’t there, but Smith made a good save.
In the 51st minute City created another chance with Blyth getting onto an Elder cross but it was easily saved, however City then found themselves two goals behind when Ntcham finished from the edge of the box from inevitably a pull back from Bytyqi.
Any fears of comprehensive defeat were quickly dispelled following a top quality free kick from Cain which Blyth flicked back across goal for Hopper to finish, score line now 1-2.
A calmer period of play followed, with Blyth booked for a late challenge and then Dawson replaced Dodoo on the hour mark. On the 68th minute, Lawlor saved well from a strong Watson shot from the edge of the area. The bench then decided to adopt the wing swap option again, with Panayiotou going to the left and Dawson on the right.
On the 78th minute another Cain cross saw St Ledgers header just pass over Panayiotou and go wide, and four minutes later from another free kick the same Cain/St Ledger combination resulted in a blocked chance going for a corner.
3rd time lucky, from the superbly taken Cain corner, St Ledger’s header makes it 2-2.
Following the goal, both sides make a change, with Barrington replacing Blyth for City which proved significant, as 4 minutes later Panayiotou goes on a run down the right and makes a deep cross which Barrington manages to get on the end of beyond the far post (when many players would have given up), and knocks it back into the goal mouth for Hopper to claim his second on the night and the 3-2 victory.
Barrington is then mobbed by the entire team, again showing the team spirit which seems to spread across the various teams we have.
Within the 4 minutes added time, Man City had the chance to equalise, but Hiwula headed poorly wide, then Barrington went on a strong run creating a chance for Watson which is well saved by the keeper, with Barrington blasting the rebound over.
So, an evening watching another Leicester side which doesn’t know how to lose. Although it wasn’t a one man show, there is no doubt that the majority of good chances in the second half came as a result of Michael Cain’s ability to deliver telling balls into the box.
It is hard to pick fault with a side that has just grabbed the Championship title, but the Radio Leicester commentary team were recently discussing the lack of goals created from the numerous dead ball situations that we gain from good football. With chances being at a premium next season, that may indicate we need an addition to the squad to address this, tonight made me wonder if we already have the solution on our books !
CITY: Smith, Sesay (c), Elder, McCourt (Cain 45), St. Ledger, Taft, Panayiotou, Watson, Blyth (Barrington 84), Hopper, Dodoo (Dawson 61), SUBS NOT USED: Simpson, Frempah
GOALS: Hopper 54, 88, St Ledger 83,
MAN CITY: Lawlor, Bossaerts (Ambrose, 90), Leigh, Facey (c) (Tasende, 45), Plummer, Glendon, Bytyqi, Fofana, Hiwula, Ntcham, Cole. SUBS NOT USED: O’Brien, Byrne, Bryan
GOALS: Cole 30, Ntcham 53
The views expressed in this report are the opinions of the Trust member nominated to file the report only and do not represent the views of the Foxes Trust organisation