Furthermore, after a couple of seasons where what home reserve matches there were took place behind closed doors at the Vale, it was good to see today’s match with Brentford being played at Leckwith – I don’t know if this signifies that all home Development team matches will be open to the public to watch at the Athletics Stadium, but I’d like to thank the club for giving supporters a chance to see our second team in action.

It was entertaining fare as well with a very open match ending up 4-2 in favour of the City side as they picked up their first win of the season. I went along to the game expecting to see players such as McPhail, Ralls, Turner and, possibly, Gestede in action, but none of them featured and so I wonder if it means that we might see some of them involved with the first team on Saturday? My guess is that Ralls and Turner may be, but not the other two (although the local press have run stories in the last few days about who will be returning this weekend, Rudi’s name has been conspicuous by it’s absence).

Ibby Farah - excellent for the Development team today.

There were some experienced performers in the side today like Gabor Gyepes, Dekel Keinan and Soloman Taiwo, but, besides that, it was an Under 21 team and some of the youngsters took the chance to impress the watching Malky Mackay. Best player for me was Ibby Farah, who tested the Brentford keeper with stinging shots either side of half time (Ibby’s continuing non selection in the Wales Under 21 squad is a real mystery to me) and generally did well in the confined spaces which modern midfield players invariably find themselves in – whether the battle was one to gain or retain possession, Farah invariably came out on top. Adedeji Oshilala at right back was another who did well and, after around ten minutes, his fine cross was neatly glanced home with his head by City’s number nine who I didn’t recognise (he was a youngster who played in a target man role until going off with about twenty minutes left – maybe he was a trialist?).

Around a quarter of an hour later, the goalscorer was to the fore again as his quickly taken throw in was picked up by Aaron Wildig, who became more influential as the game opened up, and he did well to cross low to the unmarked Jesse Darko who scored from about six yards out. At this stage, City were looking much the stronger team physically and in terms of ability, but Brentford were given a slightly lucky lifeline back into the game when a shot from the edge of the area which didn’t look too dangerous, got a deflection which lifted the ball into the net.  Half time came with City 2-1 ahead and the goals continued to flow after the break as Darko’s well struck effort restored their two goal lead within five minutes of the restart (the ball seemed to go through the net, but the officials were in no doubt as to the goal’s validity and there were no complaints from Brentford).

With Darko and Farah switching sides to good effect and Taiwo doing a good job in the holding midfield role, City were again looking pretty comfortable, but what was probably the goal of the game by Brentford’s left back as he controlled a cross and then instantly dispatched a fierce low drive into the corner of the net from fifteen yards, put the visitors right back into it and, for ten minutes or so, they began to look the more likely to get the next goal. However, a foul in the penalty area on one of our subs (I think it was Yannis Drais) led to a spot kick – the way Farah chased after the ball to pick it up after the penalty was signalled, gave the impression that he would be taking it, but, instead, Darko was given the opportunity to complete his hat trick and, as is often the case when that happens, the chance was missed as the Brentford keeper dived to his right to keep out a weak effort. The missed penalty had no effect on the outcome of the game though, because with about ten minutes left, left back Jon Meades (another one who did well) cut in and scored, via a post, from the edge of the penalty area. Two tired teams looked for more goals after that, but there were to be none and an entertaining afternoon ended up with a two goal victory margin for City which, on the balance of play, was probably about right.

I was at Cardiff City Stadium to watch the international game on a night of mixed results which saw Wales continue the slump that has seen them drop to bottom seed status for the recent World Cup 2014 qualifying draw (we were paired with Croatia, Serbia, Belguim, Scotland and Macedonia – not a bad group, but we’ve got no chance on current form) and to 112th in the Fifa World rankings and City eventually prove too strong for their League Two opponents after a hard fought tie that went to extra time.

“Hard fought” is certainly not the description that comes to mind when recalling the first half (and much of the second period) of the Wales match! The game started with Wales dominating possession, but it was never to any purpose as slow and “safe” passing saw them playing in front of Australia all of the time with the visitors perfectly content to let us have the ball. Thinking back, I’m not sure Wales, with Aaron Ramsey sometimes the furthest man forward,  even had an effort on goal in the first half – if they did, it was a punt from fifty yards or more! For a long time, Australia were little better, but they did at least carry some goal threat and a thunderous drive against an upright by former wurzel Luke Wilshire awoke every one from their slumbers around the half hour mark.

Tim Cahill’s smartly taken goal on the stroke of half time put the visitors into a lead which they deserved on the basis that they were the least bad of the teams, but it also set up a second period which proved to be  a lot more lively and competitive than the first forty five minutes. Wales substituted Darcy Blake for an out of sorts Danny Gabbidon (any one who is a regular reader of this blog will know how highly I rate Gabbs, but he looked like a player whose time at this level had gone last night) and Jack Collison for a subdued Ramsey, but, while the latter added some much needed urgency to the home midfield, Australia were getting increasingly on top and it took a combination of a fine save by Wayne Hennesey and the upright to keep them from doubling their lead. However, it was only postponing the inevitable and when they got in down our left again, the keeper’s parry dropped to Kruse who tapped in from two or three yards out.

Darcy Blake heads Wales' goal - I would have thought he would have been "bar these" in the betting for the scorer of the game's last goal!

From then on, we saw the usual and numerous substitutions that you get in these sort of games, but what was unusual this time was that they increased the game’s entertainment value. Australia were still able to show some of the form that enabled them to win in Germany a couple of months ago at times, but the introduction of Steve Morison, Joe Allen and Adam Matthews definitely improved Wales and, with Gareth Bale becoming increasingly influential, they finished the game the stronger. There was a treat for City fans when Blake scored a goal (which he has never threatened to do in a City shirt!) by heading in a corner and Aussie keeper Mark Schwartzer was as busy in the closing ten minutes as he had been in the eighty that had preceded them as Wales swarmed forward.

It was all in vain though as the visitors held on to their 2-1 lead and, truth be told, Wales’ late rally couldn’t hide the fact that the better side on the night had triumphed. Australia are not ranked at twenty three in the world rankings for nothing, but, the frustrating thing from a Welsh point of view is that in terms of individual talent, I don’t think there is much between the two sides. When you look at the players Wales have to choose from, they should never be as low as they are in the rankings and Gary Speed has to take some responsibility for the way the talented individuals available to him are not gelling into a team, but, he was as critical as most supporters were about the way his side started the match and the Welsh side has been under performing for a couple of years now under three different managers.

As for City, well I might have had a different view on things if I had been there to see it because quite a few who were weren’t over impressed. From a distance though, their 3-1 win over a team I have seen tipped by some to be League Two champions looks a tremendous result when you consider who wasn’t available for us. Nine of the sixteen man squad for the West Ham match didn’t start last night as well as two more (Kiss and McPhail) who are on the injured list – first year pros Alex Evans and Ibby Farah made their first starts in the senior team and fellow ex Academy player Nat Jarvis joined them when he made his first team debut as a second half substitute for Rudy Gestede.

Besides that, second year Academy trainees Adedeji  Oshilaja and Joe Ralls were on the bench and the latter got to play nearly an hour when he came on for Martin Taylor midway through the second half. Ralls (who is a left footed play maker) acquitted himself as well as any of the youngsters apparently, but Evans’ performance was praised by the radio team I was listening to as was Farah’s. Ibby almost got himself a goal when his twenty yard shot came back off the post, but Jarvis did manage to find the net when his header from a long ball forward looped over home keeper Clarke to put City out of sight at 3-1 deep into extra time.

A moment he'll never forget - local boy Nat Jarvis celebrates a goal on his first appearance in a competitive match for City's senior team.

Judging by what I heard during the second half though, City were a little fortunate to get to extra time. They seemed to be under continuous pressure for much of the time from a home team that recovered from Craig Conway’s deflected effort (having now seen it on the telly, it looks more like an own goal to me) which put us ahead in the twelfth minute to level on the half hour through Simon Cliss. Besides wasting a great headed chance to put us 2-0 up, Jon Parkin also had what seemed to be goal ruled out at 1-1 when it was deemed that the ball had not crossed the line – independent witnesses (well they were City fans actually!) swore blind that it was a foot or so over, but the home side could also point to them hitting the woodwork and a series of efforts just too high and too wide and so it’s probably fair to say that extra time was the least Oxford deserved.

Of course, as soon as you go into extra time, then thoughts immediately turn to penalty shoot outs. However, when City found themselves in a similar position against League Two opposition in Burton Albion last year, they showed their superior class to score three times and ease to a 4-1 win. This time around, it sounded like it was the class of an individual rather than the side as a whole that saw them through as Peter Whittingham, on as an early sub for hamstring victim Soloman Taiwo, fired in a low, left footed shot from twenty five yards that was too good for Clarke. By common consent, Whititngham was the best player on the pitch last night and he seems to have continued a very encouraging start to the season – far from being moved on, as many initially suspected, when Malky Mackay arrived, it would appear that our new manager sees Whitts as, possibly, the player we can least afford to lose.

Speaking of our manager, you cannot but contrast his approach to young players with that of Dave Jones. To be fair to our former boss, he did give Aaron Wildig (who was conspicuous by his absence from the squad last night – given his limited time on the pitch in our pre season matches, it’s beginning to look as if Malky might not rate him)  his debut in a League Cup tie a couple of years ago, but I think someone like Joe Ralls would never have got the opportunity he got last night under him. As a rule, youngsters might have been selected on the bench for this type of game in the past, but they would never get on the pitch. Indeed, there were times in the League when injuries and suspensions meant that Dave Jones would go with less than the allowed number of subs rather than use a youngster(s) from the Academy – hopefully, we’ll not be in a position where we don’t have enough senior players to fill the bench this season, but, if we are, I believe Malky Mackay would think differently.

On the other hand, we are constantly told by those involved with the youth team that it is not about results at this level, it’s about player development. I can certainly sympathise with that viewpoint and, when you consider that three of this season’s regulars in the team (Alex Evans, Ibby Farah and Nat Jarvis) have been offered full time deals, it can be claimed that the season was a successful one – off the top of my head, I cannot think of another season recently where so many players were offered pro terms at the end of a campaign. Perhaps that has something to do with the fact that we are not under the same financial constraints as we have been in the past, but, although this isn’t meant as a criticism of the three players involved, I can’t help thinking that there have been equally deserving youngsters for pro terms who have been released in recent seasons.

Anyway, Evans, Farah and Jarvis were all missing from the team this morning as City sent out a side which I would assume will be very like the one that starts next season. All four goals came in an entertaining first half but, not for the first time at the new and exposed to the elements Leckwith Stadium, a combination of a dry hard surface and a strong wind blowing down the pitch meant that good, constructive football was at a premium. City put some nice passes together around the quarter of an hour mark mind to score the best goal of the game when a sweeping move from right to left ended with a low cross from Kevin Sainte-Luce (who can be very effective at this level when he gets it all right) being tapped in at the far post by fellow French recruit Yannis Drais.

Ibby Farah - my City under 18 Player of 2010/11

Ten minutes or so later, City doubled their lead when Jesse Darko challenged for a free kick to the near post and the ball rolled slowly beyond the flat footed visiting keeper – it seemed to me that the decisive touch may have come off a defender, but Darko got the congratulations and the striker, who has come on a fair bit over the second half of the campaign, deserved a goal for another hard working and pretty effective display. To be honest though, a two goal lead flattered City who, although looking quite dangerous at times going forward, were coming second in a lot of the individual battles going on all over the pitch and the visitors reduced the deficit shortly afterwards when they broke from a free kick deep in their own half and, as two defenders went for the same ball, their striker was left with a clear run in on goal from forty yards out.

Portsmouth soon leveled when they profited from a dubious looking corner decision to score from close range after the ball was headed on from the edge of the penalty area and they shaded the rest of the game, but, apart from a mad scramble midway through the second half when the ball was blocked on the City line a couple of times before being blazed wide from about five yards out, neither goal came under too much threat after that.

Best players today for City for me were Adedeji Oshilala who, after playing at full back all season, played effectively at centre back while I liked the look of the kid who started on the right wing before being switching sides and finishing the game at left back (don’t have a name for him sorry), while, one dodgy second half moment apart, I thought the keeper (who has been a regular in the Under 16 team this season) was pretty impressive. As for over the course of the season, Ibby Farah has been the stand out performer for me as the captaincy seemed to bring out the best in him, while Joe Ralls (more effective as the game went on today) and Oshilala were the First Year scholars who impressed me most – with many of the current team still available next year as well as some decent talent from the Under 16’s to, hopefully, come through, perhaps we will get good results to go with player development in 2011/12?

One last thing before I finish, I’m pleased to hear of plans for a 20/21 age group team for next season because, hopefully, that will mean that we don’t get a repeat of the current position whereby players taken on as first year pros play virtually no competitive football unless they get a loan move. This time last year, Jon Meades had been offered a one year contract by the club, but, after playing in Norway for FK Moss during the first half of the season, he hasn’t, to the best of my knowledge, played any football since about November! I’m not sure how Meades can have earned himself a further deal at Cardiff under such circumstances – maybe he isn’t good enough for this level, but I can’t see how he could have proved himself one way or another this season. Of course, saying we are going to have an age group team and actually having one could end up being two different things – we are supposed to have a reserve team but, although they have had a few matches in recent weeks, they seem to go for months on end without playing.

In the event though, there was very little between two well matched teams as they battled to a 1-1 draw which, on the balance of play was just about right. Both sides had chances to go ahead in a goalless first half – City keeper Dave Richards had to go full length to save a fiercely struck shot from outside the penalty area, while a Watford cross shot from the corner of the  penalty area flew just wide. However, it was far from one way traffic as, if anything, City edged the opening forty five minutes with Steffan Jones nodding just wide, Declan John hitting a shot slightly too high and wide and the Watford keeper falling on Alex Evans’ jabbed shot just as it was about to cross the line.

An Adam Davies shot from twenty yards that was beaten out by the keeper a minute or two before the break confirmed that if a side carried any momentum into the second half, it was Cardiff and, although there were fewer chances for either side in the opening stages of the second period, the feeling persisted that City were just shading things. Nat Jarvis was inches away from connecting with a John cross and the visitors were a little fortunate to scramble away another cross shortly afterwards. Within thirty seconds though, they had missed the best chance of the game so far when City’s otherwise impressive left back got himself in a bit of a mess dealing with an awkwardly bouncing ball and left Watford’s number nine clean through on goal only for the striker to fire wide when he really should have at least got the ball on target.

The same player was involved when the game got it’s overdue first goal with about twenty minutes to go – Richards did well to come out and block the ball but  it was retrieved by the number nine who knocked over a cross from the bye line which the visitors number seven nodded into the unguarded net from about six yards. City’s response to falling behind was impressive as they forced a series of corners with one of them resulting in a period of pinball close to goal following John’s shot which Watford were lucky to survive, but, as City pushed forward, there were always going to be chances for the visitors to double their lead and they hit the post shortly afterwards when they had a three on one situation and then wasted another great chance to seal the win with about five minutes to go.

Those missed opportunities came back to haunt Watford a minute or so later when City captain Ibby Farah fired home a fine left footed goal from what seemed a long way out (I didn’t have the best of views as I was sitting in my car in car park at the time!). Even before his goal, Farah had turned in what I thought was a very good display as he showed energy, commitment and skill in equal measures to keep on driving his side forward. Ibby is one of only a few second year scholars in the current team and a decision will have to be made soon on whether he will be offered pro terms – my view is that he will be pretty unlucky if he isn’t.

Both teams looked for a winner after that, but didn’t really come close to getting it as City got a draw to go with the one they had got at Watford earlier in the season, so, for this year at least, my theory about Watford’s dominance in these games has been disproved. Finally, the Under 16’s game also finished 1-1 – from my position up in the stand at Leckwith, I was able to see City take the lead about half an hour into a first half which also featured what looked to be some fine saves by our keeper only for Watford to draw level with about twenty minutes left with a shot which flew in off the underside of the crossbar.

The match with Charlton was my first chance to watch the Under 18’s play this season and with a large influx of new recruits (the programme for the Doncaster match profiled sixteen new first year scholars) it was my first look at the majority of yesterday’s squad, but it was one of the older players, captain Ibby Farah, who got things off to a very promising start with a superb left footed volley from twenty five yards which looped high over the Charlton keeper and into the net. Sadly, the team did not kick on from here though and, carelessly, gave away a free kick in a dangerous area when keeper Reece Ottley picked up a back pass.

City survived that scare, but didn’t learn their lesson. Regular readers of this blog may remember that a recurring theme of reports on Academy matches last season was how the side diced with death by insisting on building from the back when it wasn’t really on – somehow, they got away with it last season, but they didn’t yesterday as a ridiculous penalty for Charlton came about by players passing sideways across the face of goal when being quickly closed down by the opposition (while it’s a good thing that City’s youngsters are encouraged to express themselves by playing passing football from deep positions, surely part of their education should include a recognition of when such an approach is on and when the “Row Z” option should be used?).

In the event Charlton duly accepted their gift and the scoring was completed with only about a fifth of the game completed. What followed was a pretty undistinguished battle for supremacy by two sides who, largely, cancelled each other out. For me, Charlton had the better of the first half, while City, perhaps, edged the second period – we could have won it if Al- Basith’s well struck shot from twenty five yards had been a bit lower and a header by centreback Nugent had to be cleared off the line in the second half, but the visitors could point to their own near misses (including a good save by Ottley right at the death), so, all in all, a draw was a fair result.

Despite all of the new faces, it was one of the “oldies” who impressed me most. Besides his fine goal, Ibby Farah got stronger as the game went on and was the player who drove the side on as they tried to find a late winner with the way he would somehow emerge with the ball from tussles with a couple of Charlton players reminding me of Seyi Olofinjana. Farah responded well to the responsibility of being a senior player in the Under 18 team and, on this evidence, looks a good choice as captain.

On to teatime then and, first, a thank you to the Cardiff City mad messageboard contributors who found a link to coverage of Wales Under 21 teams game in Hungary. With Italy winning in Bosnia on Friday, long time group leaders Wales went into their last two matches with not even the runners up spot guaranteed. Hungary had been thrashed 4-1 at Wrexham by a side which had a lot of players who had featured in the group winning team of 2008, but yesterday’s side had a much more inexperienced look to it as they faced opponents who were just a point behind them and featured highly rated players such as Newcastle’s Tamás Kádár and Liverpool’s Krisztián Németh .

Wales found themselves under the cosh for much of the first half and were forced to defend desperately at times, but kept their goal intact and went on to start create a few promising situations of their own which gave an indicator of what was to come after the break. The second period saw the home side becoming increasingly desperate for the goal which they knew they had to get to keep any realistic hopes they had of topping the group alive – this was reflected in the number of fouls they were committing and yellow cards they were picking up as the Portugese referee became an increasingly busy man.

It was from one of the many free kicks they were given that Wales broke the deadlock on sixty eight minutes when substitute Ashley Richards’ wickedly hit free kick from out on the right touchline was touched on by Hal Robson-Kanu whose header from a good sixteen yards out bounced down and flew high into the net. Perhaps, the vital touch came from a Hungarian defender rather than the Reading forward, but Richards’ free kick was of such quality that it deserved the reward it got and Robson-Kanu became increasingly prominent as opportunities arose for Wales to pick the home team off on the counter attack.

The best of these opportunities came late on when Wales were awarded a penalty for a foul on Robson-Kanu by Hungarian captain András Debreceni which saw him given a second yellow card, but keeper Péter Gulácsi saved the goalscorer’s poor spot kick to keep home hopes alive for a little longer. Wales’ response in the closing stages was impressive though as they did an excellent job of winding the clock down to see the game out with few alarms.

A great win has the table looking like this ahead of Tuesday’s decider in Italy. Although Wales’ better goal difference would give them a significant advantage in other competitions which would protect them even in the event of a narrow defeat in Pescara, the rules of this tournament (which are set out in Des Parrott’s post at 18.38 here) appear to indicate that a 1-0 win for Italy would see them overtake Wales and book their place in the Play Off’s – if Wales do lose on Tuesday they need to do it by a one goal margin while scoring at least once and, to that end, the drafting in of Neil Eardley, Andy King and Simon Church from the senior squad has to help their chances. If Wales do find themselves in second place though, then they need to be one of the four best runners up in the ten qualifying groups to make it through to the Play Off stage which they reached in 2008 before losing to England, but, to be honest, it will need three or four other results to go our way for this to happen and so I would say the odds have to be against us making it through if Italy overtake us – that 0-0 draw in Luxembourg in our first match might still come back to haunt us.

Whatever happens though, Brian Flynn and his team deserve tremendous credit for what has been another excellent qualifying campaign, it’s just a shame that it has been done with so little input from Cardiff City players. The squad for the current round of matches contained five players from Swansea (with two more amongst those named on stand by) and two on Wrexham’s books whereas our sole representative was Adam Matthews. Likewise, a recently named Under 19 squad had three from Swansea and two from Wrexham with just Alex Evans on stand being from City – to balance things up a little, a recent Under 16 squad had nine youngsters from Cardiff in it compared to one from Swansea and one from Wrexham.

In the event, Matthews came close to scoring from a free kick early on in Hungary before picking up an injury which saw him substituted after a quarter of an hour and so the only, tenuous, Cardiff City link after that was provided by our former player Aaron Morris (who signed for Aldershot in the summer) who gave a typically solid performance in the heart of the defence.  With players such as Ibby Farah and Nat Jarvis doing well at Cardiff, you would like to think that this would be reflected in their selection in one of the various Wales age group squads, but, to my knowledge, that has never happened and it is concerning that there is so little Cardiff representation at the older end of the Wales youth set up.

The recent wet weather meant that there was a change of venue today as the team returned to the Athletics Stadium at Leckwith after three months of playing at Treforest and, although the pitch didn’t look bad, I wonder whether it played a part, along with a cold wind that was stronger than expected when you got out from the protection of the stand, in making the game the scrappy and bitty spectacle that it became in the second half especially.

One other thing about playing at Leckwith is that you are so much further away from the action than you are at Treforest and this meant that it was that much harder to identify the players in the City team – in saying that, with the likes of Aaron Wildig away with the first team and Billy Taylor missing with injury, there were some new faces in the side today so I probably wouldn’t have been any the wiser if we had been playing at Treforest!

To be honest, there wasn’t much action to describe throughout the game – the sides were evenly matched, competed hard and, largely, cancelled each other out. I thought City edged the first half and deserved their lead, but the wurzels had more of the game after the break and, probably, a draw would have been a fairer result.

While it would be stretching a point to say that City were dominant at any time in the game, they did score when they were enjoying their best spell. Shortly before going ahead, City came close twice when Jon Meades almost put in Nat Jarvis and then, from the resultant corner the ball was glanced just wide with the wurzel’s keeper beaten. Within minutes though City were in front when Jarvis and Leigh Smith combined well down the left and the former’s fine low cross was knocked in from about six yards out by Zac Evans (at least I think it was Zac Evans – it was our number 8 anyway!).

The only problems City had in the first half were nearly all of their own making as their policy of playing out from the back almost got them in trouble on a number of occasions. I like the fact that the keepers are encouraged to play short free kicks and goal kicks to defenders to try and build from the back, but City were flying by the seat of their pants sometimes this morning – the right back was caught out and gave away a free kick on the edge of the penalty area for which he could easily have received a yellow or possibly even red card and both centre backs came very close to losing the ball when they were the last man.

However City survived to half time, but any hopes that the second forty five minutes would see an increase in quality were soon forgotten with the game became more scrappy as the wind increased. There were more goalmouth incidents than in the first half though and it has to be said that the closer escapes came at the City end of the pitch. For example a shot from the edge of the penalty area got a very slight touch which deflected the ball inches wide and then from the corner that followed this time the ball needed only the slightest of touches from a visiting player for it to have found the net as it flew across the face of the goal with the City defence and keeper helpless. A few minutes later, keeper Reece Ottley (who has got a hell of a left footed kick on him) seemed to have presented the visitors with an equaliser when he failed to hold a long range shot – it looked like the wurzels striker who was following up had a simple tap in, but Ottley recovered well to dive on the ball and snuff out the danger.

It wasn’t one way traffic in the second half though as the visitor’s keeper made good saves from well struck efforts by City’s right back and one of their substitutes and, by the end of the game City were coping more comfortably than they had been with the visitor’s attack so the closing stages were played out with few alarms.

It wasn’t the type of game really where individuals stood out, but I thought IbbyFarah was very good in the first half only to fade in the second period as he suffered with the effects of an injury he picked up. Alongside him in the middle of the park was one of the players I didn’t recognise  (he wore the number four shirt and got better as the game went on) – Neil Ardley did mention on the official site that someone called Adam Davies came in from the Under 16’s today and played the full ninety minutes so maybe it was him? Of the others, increasingly I like the look of centre half Alex Evans and, although as mentioned before, he and his partner Steffan Jones caused a few missed heartbeats as they almost lost possession in the first half, they both had solid games in which they proved too strong for their opponents.

One last thing, the Under 16’s game was also switched from Treforest and was played on one of the adjoining pitches to the athletics stadium – apparently it finished 0-0.

Anyway, whether you support the Academy Foundation or not, it doesn’t seem to be effecting the lads out on the pitch because the Under 18s stretched their unbeaten run to seven games yesterday morning with a 2-1 win over Reading at Treforest.

In truth, it wasn’t a great game of football, but it was competitive enough to keep your attention and, by going 2-0 up and then surviving a late Reading fightback, I think City did just enough to merit the points.

You could tell the City team were in a confident frame of mind by the way they started the game as they forced the visitors back. Corners were conceded by Reading and captain Jon Meades brought a save out of the Reading keeper with a low shot from distance in the opening five minutes as City looked much the better side, but after that the game settled down into a midfield scrap as both sides rather cancelled each other out. Until their late goal, Reading offered little threat except for some crosses into dangerous areas which their strikers just couldn’t reach and one such cross was the catalyst for City upping their game as Leigh Smith and Nat Jarvis had goal bound shots blocked and a Reading defender was forced to clear off his own line seconds later.

However, things settled down again after that and half time came and went with the score sheet blank. After the interval, City generally looked slightly the better team as they began to make inroads down their right wing. However, apart from one or two goalmouth flurries when the Reading keeper was forced into saves, it was beginning to look like the game may peter out into a goalless draw when a goal arrived out of nowhere midway through the half. Once again, the danger came from down City’s right flank as midfielder Ibby Farah was played in and, after his first effort was blocked by a defender, he buried a close range shot high into the net – although the keeper was beaten at his near post, the force of Farah’s shot meant that no blame could really be attached to him.

Reading’s response to going behind didn’t suggest that they had an equaliser in them with a second City goal definitely looking more likely and it duly arrived with around ten minutes to go when substitute Steffan Jones was played in down the same right hand channel as Farah had been for his goal but this time the goal came courtesy of good low shot across the keeper which found the net via a post.

A two goal defeat would have been harsh on Reading and with four minutes to go they scored the goal of the game with a lobbed shot from outside the penalty area which flew over Santiago and into the net. This goal was the prelude to Reading abandoning any attempts to play passing football as they constantly knocked long balls from back to front in a bid to get on level terms, but City held firm without too many alarms to record a win which takes them up to second in the table.

It wasn’t the type of match for great individual performances, but I’ll mention a few names. Firstly I was looking forward to watching Nat Jarvis who has been showing signs of becoming the sort of goal getting striker the Under 18s have lacked in recent years and I was pretty impressed overall. Jarvis plays as a lone striker and I would have thought that was a pretty thankless task for someone of his age, but he made a decent job of it yesterday. On the down side, Jarvis’ constant questioning of decisions got him a yellow card for dissent, then a strong talking to a few minutes later when he ridiculously started it up again (off the top of my head, I can’t ever remember a player being red carded after two yellow cards for dissent, but I came very close to seeing it yesterday).

Shortly after that Jarvis gave away a free kick with the sort of tackle that would earn a yellow card nine times out of ten, but the referee, who I thought was very good overall, erred very much on the side of leniency by giving him a final warning. This was the cue for Neil Ardley to withdraw Jarvis and bring on sub Steffan Jones who, by all accounts, is really a centreback. Well, all I can say us that he must be some defender if the club think he is better off playing at the back, because, on this evidence, he looked a natural target man type centre forward. It wasn’t just the cool way Jones took his goal that impressed, it was the way he linked play up by showing awareness of those around him that also took the eye – perhaps I saw Jones on a good day, but he really was impressive when he came on.

Others deserving of a mention were the right sided midfield player  (I’m sorry, I don’t know his name but his team mates were calling him Kenny) who did very little to take my eye in the first half, but became increasingly influential after the break and keeper Jordan Santiago who didn’t have too much to do but played as well as I have seen him – he looked much more assured than on the previous occasions I have seen him play.

I think the biggest single factor behind City’s win was the way Santiago and the back four completely dominated the Reading attack. While I didn’t think any of the back four were outstanding individually, I thought they defended well as a unit and worked well in conjunction with their goalkeeper. If I had a criticism of the five of them yesterday it would be that in the first half they overdid the building from the back stuff a bit as Santiago threw the ball out to defenders in positions that led to awkward moments for the team, but that’s not a bad fault to have really because, overall, it has to be good that our youngsters are encouraged to build from the back and play football rather than just welly it forward. Okay, there wasn’t much flowing football on show yesterday, but the ability to win when not playing too well is not a bad thing – it’s an art that the senior side, for all their big wins, don’t seem to have mastered yet.

When you consider that Manchester City have one of the best records around for bringing through players from their Academy sides into their first team and their recent history of reaching and occasionally winning FA Youth Cups, there is no real shame in a City team shorn of their best players in this age group because of first team commitments losing by such a score. However, when you then take on board what a good game our kids gave their illustrious visitors in the first half, the final scoreline was a disappointment.

City gave us good as they got in the first half and, except for the visitors pace down their left which caused a few concerns, did not have too many problems keeping their clean sheet. To be honest, there were few real alarms for Man City either in a first period that was short of goalmouth action, but was still an interesting spectacle for all of that.

Unfortunately though the second half was a completely different story – you got the impression that there had been a few home truths told in  the visiting dressing room at the interval and Man City looked a much more threatening proposition as they forced a string of early corners. City survived them though and, just when it looked like they were getting back into the game, they fell behind around the hour mark to a fine goal as the visitors string together a lovely passing movement which finished with a tap in goal by striker Benali.

I am afraid that City rather fell to pieces for a while after that, they gave the ball away straight from the restart and within a minute the ball was in their net again as Abdoullali’s fierce angled shot beat keeper Santiago at his near post. For a while it looked like City were on for a hiding as the visitors completely dominated, but a couple of close misses from headers by Jarvis offered hope that they might be able to reduce the deficit

There was a further goal, but it came for the visitors in the last couple of minutes when some wonderful skill by their number 10 out by the corner flag took him past two opponents and he was only stopped by a mistimed tackle from Alex Evans which resulted in a pretty obvious penalty which Redshaw put away easily.

City’s team display was rather mirrored in individual performances with captain Jon Meades (used as a left back today), midfielder Ibby Farah and striker Nat Jarvis all having a good first forty five minutes before fading after the break – given the strength of the opposition though, it probably wasn’t really the best game to try to judge how well or poorly the Under 18s will do this season.