Prescot Cables U18 - 1 V Fleetwood Town U18 - 3
After seeing the Sunday Academy side cruise to a 11 – 0 win in there first competitive fixture. The Wednesday Academy side battled out a 3 – 1 win in there own first competitive fixture of the season. This result came in the Preliminary round of the FA Youth cup against a physical and structured Prescot Cables side at their home venue.
Fleetwood started bright and moved the ball well in the first 20 minutes and looked the better of the two sides, creating chances which were not converted. The home side seemed to draw strength from this and started to put together some passing of their own. The deadlock was broken on the half hour mark when a long ball from the home sides keeper was flicked on and caught the Fleetwood defence flat footed, with their striker racing onto the ball and placing the ball passed the oncoming Town keeper. The score line somehow stayed the same till half time despite Fleetwood creating some good scoring opportunities.
During the break the Town management changed formation and went 4-3-3. This paid dividends within the first minute of the second half. When from the kick off Town were positive in their play and earned themselves a corner, from which Shaun Moulding scored direct with the aid of the Prescot keeper at his near post. The stalemate continued through some poor finishing from town and some great keeping from Ryan Mainwaring thwarting two 1v1 opportunities for Prescot.
The inevitable happened and the game went into extra time. Town took the advantage when Josh Walker was fouled on the edge of the Prescot box, and from the resulting free kick Sam Christensen coolly curled the ball round the wall and into the bottom corner of the goal passed the diving reach of the home keeper. In the second half of extra time Town sealed the victory with a solo goal from Chris Vivian, which saw him drive into the box and with his left foot strike the ball passed the home keeper at his near post.
Town were made to fight hard, yet were deserved winner in the end. The victory sees them claim a bye in the next round of the competition with Colne retiring from the FA Youth Cup. The next stage 2nd qualifying round will see Town play either Southport OR Stalybridge/Vauxhall.
The result shows the squad works well for each other and the display gives positives and areas to work on in training, in preparation for the next fixture Vs MMU in the conference league on 15th Sept.
