Group Game 5 Results and Reactions

[Darlington]

Matches and Stats

Missing Sheets
Arsenal U23
Leicester U23
Man Utd U23
Man City U23
QPR U23

Sheet Errors
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[Nocky]

Manchester City U23 0-2 Wolverhampton Wanderers U23

After our first loss of the season in midweek we bounced back well to pick up a good away win. The home manager no showed and we duly got the counter which lead to a victory which was a lot more comfortable than the score line suggests. The goals came just after the half hour through Nishan Burkart and just after the hour through Ryan Trevitt but the result never felt in doubt and we were happy to keep our first clean sheet for three matches.

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Pl   Team                      P    W   D   L    GF   GA   GD   Pts
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1    Wolverhampton_U23         5    4   1   0    12    2   10    13
2    Derby_County_U23          5    2   0   3     5    6   -1     5
3    Burnley_U23               5    1   2   2     6    6    0     5    
4    Manchester_City_U23       5    1   1   3     4   13   -9     4

With Derby suffering a surprise defeat to Burnley the win sends us through by what now looks like a chasm (although Derby should be on six points) and, after celebrating progression early after the last game we can now confirm it. That does mean we may rest some players for the next round but i'm not sure we will. Derby are a good side and the only ones to beat us so far this season so maybe we want some revenge. It'd also be nice to have them eliminated as one of the top sides in the comp although i'm not sure if their max of nine would be enough anyway.

We will see how the games before then go and then make a call at the time. The good news is that we have the luxury of that decision to make as we're safely in the hat for the quarter finals

[Nocky]

Southampton U23s 1-6 Aston Villa U23s
The Saints youths must be sick of us this season. That's two games in this competition and we've won by an aggregate score of 15-2 having followed up the 9-1 home win with now a 6-1 on our travels. First half goals from Karamoko Dembele, Verell George and Matthew Bondswell put us in complete control although they did pull one back on the stroke of half time through Ballard.

The second half was the Tom Costello show with the forward grabbing himself a hat trick in a dominant performance from him to confirm our dominance over Southampton this season.

The worrying part about this type of game is that our players gain abs too fast and are in danger of being promoted to the senior side. We have to make sure we keep them with us as along as possible and maybe start prioritising games for the top stars. Fortunately we won't be in a 51 match marathon like last year but still are looking at maybe 40 matches if we do well in both cups. That would lead to us very depleted by the end of the season.

As for this cup...

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Pl   Team                      P    W   D   L    GF   GA   GD   Pts
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1    Aston_Villa_U23           5    4   1   0    21    3   18    13
2    Everton_U23               5    4   0   1    16    5   11    12
3    Brentford_U23             5    1   1   3     3   10   -7     4
4    Southampton_U23           5    0   0   5     4   26  -22     0

The 21 goals scored at 4.2per game and GD of 18 after 5 matches is fantastic but we're still not guaranteed to win the group as we entertain Everton on the final round of matches. I am pretty confident though that even if we finish second on 13 points that will be enough to be a best runner up so i'm not too worried. I think we will leave some big names out for that one. I think Everton's 12 points will be enough even if they lose as well so it could be a reserve fixture played out there. Although we wouldn't want to lose too much momentum.

So lots to think about for us after this game but these big wins don't come about often so we'll enjoy it and worry about other things down the line

[stocko74]

Everton U23 2 - 0 Brentford U23

E_Le (72) Injured: V_Adedokun (90)
E_Simms (73)

another game were we failed to win poor performance we have to do better but the ways things are going in the world of esms thats not going improve

[Matt]

Sheffield United U23 1 - 0 Bournemouth U23

We just did not turn up this weekend, Sheffield Utd used the home advantage and completed controlled the whole match, we had been on fine form so its a disappointment to lose in such fashion but hopefully we can bounce back in the league