A goal in each half from forwards Sam Dalby and Joseph Hungbo saw Watford beat Crewe Alexandra in the Under-23 Professional Development League this afternoon at the Alexandra Stadium, despite Tyreece Onyeka’s second-half consolation.
After last night’s first-team game saw a few of the regulars from this age-group involved, manager Alex Morris named Sam Booth in goal with a back 4 of Abdul Djalo, Billy Sass-Davies, Luke Offord and Nathan Woodthorpe in front of him. In midfield, captain Josh Lundstram placed at the base of a diamond with Joe Robbins and Regan Griffiths in front of him while Aaron Lomas played behind Lewis Reilly and Onyeka. On the bench were goalkeeper Daniel Lloyd, Daniel Lokko, Ethan Hartshorn and Oliver Southern.
The opening goal of the game came in the 26th minute with Henry Wise, son of former England international Dennis, getting in down the right-wing before squaring the ball for Hungbo to open the scoring from close range before they doubled the lead 3 minutes later after another Wise assist played Dalby in behind with the striker finishing between Booth’s legs.
Whilst the first-half was the two sides cancelling each other out for the majority, Watford came out for the second-half on the front-foot with Hungbo adding their third just before the hour-mark with a rocket-shot from 20-yards before the Alex got one back through Under-18s striker Onyeka after a slip from Watford right-back Ryan Maclean allowed the forward in behind to finish past Parkes while Wise would get his 3rd assist of the afternoon setting up Dalby with a close-range header with a quarter-hour left on the clock.
The next couple of games for Morris’ men sees a trip to Bolton Wanderers on Monday before a home game against Sheffield United 2 weeks today.
Crewe: Booth; Djalo, Sass-Davies (Lokko 70), Offord, Woodthorpe; Lundstram (c), Griffiths, Robbins, Lomas (Southern 57); Reilly, Onyeka
Watford: Parkes, Maclean (Spencer-Adams 70), Zeegelaar, Whelan (Forster 64), Balogun (c), Barrett, Bennetts (Hinds 64), Wise, Dalby, Adebiyi, Hungbo
