A dominant first-half display from Manchester City’s Under-21 team gave them a solid platform to win their second EFL Trophy game against Crewe Alexandra at the Alexandra Stadium yesterday evening.
Manager David Artell made 4 changes to Saturday’s home defeat against Port Vale with Kevin O’Connor replacing Nicky Hunt at left-back, Tom Lowery replaced James Jones in central midfield, Ollie Finney made his full debut in for Charlie Kirk out wide whilst Shaun Miller replaced Chris Porter up front.
The City youngsters took the lead within 2 minutes as Ben Garratt palmed Lorenzo Gonzalez’s shot into the path of Dele-Bashiru who finished from the edge of the area whilst the young Citizens added a second mid-way through the opening period with Gonzalez lifting the ball over Garratt as he came out to narrow the angle.
After a change at half-time which saw Callum Ainley replaced by Alex Nicholls, the substitute halved the deficit within 10 minutes as he turned in a low O’Connor cross from the left whilst City regained their 2-goal lead with 13 minutes to play from the penalty spot after Taylor Richards was brought down which the substitute midfielder chipped down the middle of Garratt’s goal whilst fellow substitute Henri Ogunby added a fourth in stoppage-time.
Crewe travel to Notts County as we return to league action on Saturday whilst the final games in the group stage of the EFL Trophy see Tranmere Rovers host Man City’s U21 team whilst Crewe host Shrewsbury Town, both games set for Tuesday 13th November.
What have we learnt from this game?
Without lazily looking at how the City team has seen millions of pounds of development in facilities and team cost that we could only dream of, this was a very energetic side that play in same way as their senior counterparts which is helped by them spending time training with the first team. As for the Alex, it was better to see some balance across the back 4 with O’Connor at left-back and Artell changed to have a smaller striker with Bowery.
Alexandra Stadium
EFL Trophy
25/09/2018 7:30 pm
Attendance: 810
Referee: Thomas Bramall
Crewe Alexandra | Manchester City Under-21 | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nicholls | Dele-Bashiru, Gonzalez, Richards (pen), Ogunby | ||||||
Garratt | Scott | ||||||
Whelan | Diounkou | ||||||
Ray | Rosler | ||||||
Ng | Ogbeta | ||||||
O'Connor | Frimpong | 79 | |||||
Ainley | 46 | Pozo | |||||
Wintle | Poveda | ||||||
Lowery | 76 | T. Dele-Bashiru | |||||
Finney | Gonzalez | 72 | |||||
Miller | F. Nmecha | 58 | |||||
Bowery | 76 | Matondo | |||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
Richards | Anderson | ||||||
Raynes | Harwood-Bellis | 79 | |||||
Porter | 76 | Richards | 58 | ||||
Jones | 76 | Fiorini | |||||
Nicholls | 46 | Knight | |||||
Kirk | Ogunby | 72 | |||||
Reilly | Simmonds |
Game Statistics |
||
0 | Goal attempts | 0 |
0 | On Target | 0 |
0 | Corners | 0 |
0 | Fouls | 0 |
0 | Yellow Cards | 0 |
0 | Red Cards | 0 |
0 | % | 0 |