Forthcoming Fixtures

A solitary strike from midfielder George King . nine minues from time was enough to give a very young City academy side victory away at Bolton.

The side consisted of 7 players from the under 16's, with George Swann, Jordi Hiwula  & Louis Hutton being given full debuts and they were joined by further debutants in the second half with Fisayo Adarabioyo and Matthew Dolan making appearances.

With a reserve game this evening and players going away to the Ferolli tournament the team was always going to be a bit of a patch one. However the team did have some key players with experience. That team rode its luck at times to gain a solitary goal victory.

The game started brightly for City as Kim Skogsrud played a long ball over the top to pick out the diagonal run of Adam Drury who brought the ball down well and ran into the area and shot with his right foot but the Bolton goalkeeper was able to claw the ball away and behind for a corner.

That was perhaps the only clear cut chance created by either side in the first half  as City looked very comfortable in what Bolton had to offer in their offensive plays.

The second half  Bolton saw that City looked a little leggy in some areas and they exploited that as they got around City at times and hit the woodwork on three occasions and forced Tom Halsall to be at his very best shot stopping mode at times but there was a resolution about this young City side that just did not want to surrender a goal against them.

City looked good however on the break and forced the Bolton goalkeeper to be on his toes when he saved well from Bradley Robinson across the goal. City certainly did not have the best of officials who made some curious decisions at times; one especially when the assistant wrongly gave Jordi Hiwula offside when he ran from behind the player with a great through ball.

However is was not called offside when George Evans played him through and he decided rather than take the early shot to take the ball around the goalkeeper but his shot hit the inside of the post and rebounded at height back to Adam Drury and he could not adjust his body in time to get the shot back into an empty goal.

With it being a warm afternoon their were a couple of breaks before City finally made a change to try to sure up the defence for the final quarter of an hour. Plummer might have been the one to come off but an injury to George Swann forced the twin Skogsrud's to partner up at centre half.

City were the one to finally break the deadlock in a fast paced second half when Bradley Robinson was strong in holding the ball up before turning and seeing Luke Coulson in space who kept his discipline across the line to stay onside as Bradley played the ball through to him and was able to get to the by-line and fire the ball across the face of the goal where George King ran in and fired from a tight angle into the roof of the goal.

That result means that with two games remaining City only need two points from them to get third place in the league and when one of those games is Huddersfield who have only amassed twenty two points from twenty six games you have to back City who look strong even though they are very young.

Team:

Halsall, Coulson, Plummer, K Skogsrud, Swann (T Skogsrud 77), Evans, Drury, Hutton, Hiwula (Adarabioyo 82), Robinson (Dolan 90), King