Well, that was a very nice way to spend an afternoon on the warmest winter’s day in the UK since records began! .
I’ve just got back from watching City’s Development team beat Queens Park Rangers at Leckwith and, incredibly for a game in February, I’m expecting to be sunburnt tomorrow and I spent time during the first half worrying how my dog would be coping in the car which was parked near by. Before anyone starts firing off angry tweets or e-mails to me, I left the window open and checked her at half time – she was fine, it was warm, but not as warm as that.
Recent weeks have seen members of the club’s successful Under 18 side finally making the jump into the Development side. Today’s starting line up had four players (Ben Margetson, Joel Bagan, Dan Griffiths and Sion Spence) who were all regulars in the Under 18 side before Christmas, while the pair of nineteen year olds brought into the club in January, Shamrock Rovers loanee Aaron Bolger and former Haverfordwest regular Danny Williams, were also included. There were also substitute appearances for three more regulars from the Academy team with Trystan Jones, Sam Bowen and Jac Davies getting game time – in fact, the first named played for eighty minutes after captain Lloyd Humphries had to leave the field early having been unable to shake off the effects of a challenge on him in the first few minutes.
With goalkeeper Warren Burwood still only eighteen and left back Laurence Wootton having celebrated his nineteenth birthday just last month, only Humphries, 21 year old right Ryan Price and the experienced Stuart O’Keefe weren’t teenagers out of the fourteen used this afternoon. Therefore, this was the youngest City side I have seen at this level for some time (probably since before the last two years of endless trialists) and I don’t believe that it was a coincidence at all that the performance this afternoon was among the two or three best I’ve seen from a City development team in that time.
My praise should probably be qualified somewhat because Queens Park Rangers weren’t very good. This may be down to us being so good ourselves of course, but there were no names I recognised in their line up and they did look a very young team with a few in there who were smaller than any of our players. However, City were well worth their 3-0 win, even if it took them some time to turn their dominance into goals – in fact, a bigger margin of victory would have been a fairer reflection of the difference between the sides.
City had already caused plenty of problems for the visitors by the time Jones made his early introduction and the story of the first period was one of pretty continuous pressure from the home team which eased in the last fifteen minutes or so of the half to leave you wondering if they may end up paying the price for failing to cash in some of the chances they missed.
Probably the best two came to more defensive players as Bagan got a good contact on his header from a corner, but could only direct it just over and then an unmarked Price volleyed wide from about six yards on the far post as he met a cross from the other wing back Wootton.
Spence and Bolger had decent opportunities as well, but QPR got to the interval still level. despite having shown little or nothing as an attacking force.
City continued to press after the break and finally made a breakthrough on fifty one minutes – albeit with considerable help from visiting keeper Myles Bowman. The goalkeeper’s culpability should not mean that the superb piece of skill performed by Spence in instantly controlling a long ball forward before getting away a shot which lacked power should not be appreciated mind. Even so, Spence’s effort should have been dealt with by Bowman, but he seemed to be a little off balance as he allowed the shot to elude him and roll gently towards the goal.
Whether the ball was already over the line before Williams got a touch on it was unclear from where I was sat, but I hope it was because the control by Spence deserved some reward even if the resultant shot was not one of his best.
Anyway, Williams had a goal of his own a couple of minutes later when he turned in Jones’ powerful header from an O’Keefe free kick from close range to give the scoreline a more realistic look.
After that, I can remember a header just wide from a corner by the visitors, but it was all very comfortable for an impressive City side who completed the scoring with about ten minutes left when O’Keefe slipped in Griffiths after a good run by the midfielder and the young striker got his first goal at this level by neatly beating Bowman from the corner of the six yard box.
I think over the past couple of years, I’ve made my feelings over the way the Development team has been progressing (or, to be more accurate, not progressing) pretty clear and so I must admit that I did find it hard to be too complimentary about the revolving door of trialists and generally mediocre signings that had come from this exercise. I’m biased I admit, but what I saw today from a side largely made of local Academy products was a lot better than the large majority of stuff I’ve been watching from City at this level since the back end of the 16/17 campaign.
