3 goals in the opening 20 minutes gave Barnsley an insurmountable lead in the U23 Professional Developement league this afternoon against Crewe Alexandra, the visitors scoring goals from Joe Lynch and Ollie Finney (pictured above) reducing the deficit before half-time.
Manager Alex Morris made 2 changes from Monday afternoon’s home victory against QPR as trialists Reice Charles-Cook (who also played in the previous Friday afternoon fixture at Watford a fortnight ago) and Liam Smith, who spent a brief loan spell here a couple of seasons ago, came in Dave Richards and Tom Lowery, who will be on first-team duty at Cheltenham tomorrow afternoon. Lucas Dawson, the trialist midfielder who played in central midfield on Monday, starts again with the bench unchanged from Monday as Sam Booth, Connor Heath, Matty Fenton and Joe Robbins made it up.
The hosts lead inside the opening 3 minutes as wide-man Louis Walsh cut in from the left-wing before goals from one of the 4 trialists in the Tykes team and Kieran Feeney saw the hosts 3 up whilst the minute number was still in single-figures. Crewe almost got 1 back on 17 minutes but Mitchell Allen, another one of the trialists for Barnsley, saved Reilly’s spot-kick before 2 goals in as many minutes from Lynch and a Finney wonder-strike saw the Alex back in the game before the half-hour mark.
After a change apiece which saw Ollie Finney replaced by 2nd-year scholar Connor Heath for the Alex, Tai-Reece Chisholm extended the lead for the Tykes from 6-yards out getting on the end of a low cross before Billy Sass-Davies headed the ball against the bar just before the hour-mark.
The Under-23 team are next in action a week on Monday (24th) against Birmingham City at Reaseheath with the game kicking off at 1pm.
Crewe (4-4-2): Charles-Cook; T. Johnson, Sass-Davies, Lundstram, Offord; Finney (Heath 46), Dawson, Smith, Lynch, Reilly, Linton
Barnsley: Allen, Williams, White (Owens 46), Sadiki, Smith (c, Fielding 10), Barnett, Wardle, Sumner, Feeney, Chisholm, Walsh (Berkovits 73)
