Youth Cup Finals Confirmed

The provisional dates of April 13th and 21st have now been rubber stamped with the Away Anfield leg first with a 7:30pm kick off and a 7:45pm kick off in Manchester.

Liverpool Prices: £7 Adults & £3 Concessions.

City: £8 Adult & £4 concessions in Advance
£10 Adult & £5 Concessions on the Day

Winning Run comes to an End

LUFC Reserves 1 - 1 MCFC Reserves

City were lucky to continue their unbeaten run and come away with a point against a Leeds side that fluffed their lines in front of goal more so than Children in a nativity play. City's goal came completely against the run of play when Ishmael Miller chased the keeper down and Ashley Grimes ran towards goal and played a controlled shot under the body of young goalkeeper Ben Smith.

Three minutes later Leeds were level thanks to a fine near post top corner strike by Australian Joel Griffiths who has moved from Swiss club Neuchatel Xamax, after a fine run down the right.

The pitch at Leeds South stadium did not help but Leeds dealt with the conditions far better and had it not been for some great saves and commanding ball catching by Nicky Weaver we most certainly would have lost.

On another note we saw Javan Vidal make his reserve debut, with our squad so thin on the ground at the present, we are likely to see a few more younger players make their debuts in the next few weeks.

LUFC: Smith(GK), Richardson, Harding, Hird(Capt.), Marques, Bakke, Griffiths, Gray, Beckford(Ameobi 59), Howson(Rotherby 77), Pugh.

Subs: Wilberforce(GK), Parker, Madden

MCFC: Weaver(GK), Ward, Collins, Laird, M Mills, D'Laryea, Croft(Vidal 77), Flood(Capt.), Bermingham, Miller, Grimes.

Subs: Mentel(GK), Mee, Clayton.

Att: Approx. 100.

MotM: Weaver - must be very close to a first team start on this form.

City Youth Scrape Through to Final

MCFC Youth 1 - 1 NUFC Youth (Agg: MCFC 4 - 3 NUFC)

City's young guns only just held their nerve in a torrid game by holding on for the draw after their away victory in the first leg at St James' Park last week. A first half own goal or Daniel Sturridge effort was cancelled out ten minutes before the break by a volley from Nicky Deverdics.

City's goal came on fifteen minutes when City were awarded a free kick for a foul on Kelvin Etuhu. Paul Marshall whipped the inswinging dead ball effort on towards the penalty spot and either the defender or Sturridge got their head on the ball to put it past Fraser Forster in goal.

Newcastle's equaliser came from a long throw in, in to the penalty box from the right and was not cleared and in ran Deverdics to volley the dropping ball into the top of the goal.

The second half was a real non event for City as they managed to block or defend and just generally put Newcastle off at the last moments to deny them many clear openings; but that did not stop them being all over the place at times and looking totally disjointed.

The substitution of Sturridge for Ched Evans seemed to add something more upfront for City as Evans and Etuhu look more of a partnership than Sturridge and Etuhu at times.

So City will play Liverpool in the final with the away leg first. The provisional dates for these two televised games is the 13th and 21st of April.


City: Matthewson(GK), Obeng, Logan, Williamson, Breen, Marshall, Williams, Johnson(Capt.), Etuhu, Sturridge(C Evans 78), Moore.

Subs: Vadon(GK), Daly, McDermott, Mouritsen.


NUFC: Forster(GK), Cowan, Deverdics, Huntington(Capt.), Marr, Cavener, Lualua(Doninger 58), Francis(Grieve 82), Carroll, Critchlow, Godsmark(Troisi 46).

Subs: Cook(GK), Little.

Att: 2494

MotM: Obeng - put in some great last ditch challenges to save City's blushes.

League & Cup Double Looks Out of Reach

BFC U18s 1 - 0 MCFC U18s

Barnsley gave City their first league defeat in six league games and nine in all competitions to all but end their chances of winning their league group and progressing to the national play-off finals, in April and May.

City's U16s continued their tremendous winning run by recording a 4-2 victory.

City to Face Liverpool

Should City avoid defeat next Thursday in their second leg semi final against Newcastle at COMS, they will meet Liverpool in the televised double legged final. This was after Southampton took Liverpool to extra time after they won their home leg tie to make it 4-4 on aggregate. But Liverpool held their nerve to win 5-4 on penalties. So don't forget to come along on Thursday to cheer City's youth team on to the final.

City Make Hard Work of It

FA Youth Cup Semi-Final 1st Leg

NUFC Youth 2 - 3 MCFC Youth

City should have had this tie wrapped up after forty minutes with City dominating the opening proceedings. Indeed it took our goalkeeper, Lawrence Matthewson ten minutes to even touch the ball, and that was for a free kick for an off-side. City's goals came from top scorer Kelvin Etuhu, man of the match Ashley Williams and Captain Michael Johnson.

City faced a Newcastle team that had one game plan; the long ball over the top and to try to kick every City player that moved. To be fair to Newcastle that game plan worked quite well as more than twice City's back four were caught flat and could have scored more than their two goals as the game wore on and they grew in confidence at City's ability to convert the many chances that they were able to create.

City's first goal came when Ashley Williams closed down Newcastle's Nicky Deverdics and dispossessed him and slip a neat ball towards the box for Kelvin to run onto and finish neatly past Fraser Forster in goal from just inside the area.

City continued to dominate and Karl Moore was unlucky to see his fine run and shot saved well by Forster. The resulting corner saw centre half, Gary Breen's miss hit shot cleared of the line.

So the inevitable happened two minutes before the break when Newcastle's big lumbering forward, Andy Carrol was able to send a ball past Sam Williamson and Breen for Jonathan Godsmark to run onto and Breen could not get a proper tackle in and the ball went past Matthewson and in of the post.

The second half started even better for the home side as they had the gaul to take a two one lead in the fourth minute after the break. The ball came in from Newcastle's right and both Williamson and Shaleum Logan failed to deal with it and Godsmark was there again to nip in around the back and finish at the far post.

City drew deservedly level within two minutes when good work from Kelvin down the left allowed a deep cross that evaded all of the United defence and Williams was on hand to smash a right foot volley into the far left corner of the goal.

Not long after City scored the winning goal, again fine work from Williams, taking the ball out of defence drove infield and slid a ball into the path of Johnson, who beat three on-rushing defenders and slid the ball under Forster.

United became more frustrated and became even more physical and quite rightly the referee finally got his book out to caution Carroll and two minutes after that, booked Captain, Paul Huntington.

United made another substitution which gave them more shape, but City countered that threat by bringing on Ched Evans for the wasteful Daniel Sturridge, and Evan's movement and strength gave City's midfield more options and they were able to see out the ninety minutes as the holders of a goal advantage going into the second leg next thursday at 7:30pm.


United: Forster(GK), Cowan, Deverdics, Huntington(Capt.), Marr, Critchlow, Troisi, Cavener, Carroll, Donninger(Lualua 60), Godsmark(Little 72).

Subs: Cook(GK), Lough, Terrell.


City: Matthewson(GK), Obeng, Logan, Williamson, Breen, Marshall, Williams, Johnson(Capt.), Etuhu, Sturridge(C Evans 78), Moore.

Subs: Vadon(GK), S Evans, McDermott, Mouritsen.

Att: 1707

MotM: Williams - Scored one, had a hand in the other two and never stopped running.

Academy Drop Silly Points

MCFC U18s 2 - 2 HTFC U18s

City had to come back twice from Huddersfield Town to earn a misely point against on paper, an inferior team. With top of the table Blackburn winning again, our title challenge looks to have taken a turn for the worse.

City's goals saw a rare strike from Ashley Williams and the second headed equalizer from half time substitute Kelvin Etuhu who continues to impress with his overall play and scoring attributes, and had replaced the ineffective Danny Sturridge, who yet again fails to perform to his ability.


City's U16s performed much better to their perceived quality by winning 6-1 with one striker scoring 4 goals. The first half had been stopped after just after twenty five minutes with a bad head and neck injury to the opposition goalkeeper, where an ambulance was called, but fortunately the early reports were not as bad as first thought and he was tacken to hospital more on a precautionary basis. I wish him a speedy recovery. Huddersfield's cause was helped even less when they had a player sent of with fifteen minutes to go.

City Scrape their Fourth Successive League Victory

MCFC Reserves 4 - 2 WAFC Reserves

Two late goals from substitute Ashley Grimes saved City's blushes after some very sloppy early play that allowed Wigan Athletic to be in front for a large portion of the game. City had gone infront early on through Ishmael Miller but two goals from Wigan around the half hour mark put City onto the back foot and it was not until the fifty ninth minute when Miller won and converted a penalty did City draw level with lowly Wigan. City will be thankful for Grimes though as his movement and strikes finished Wigan of and cemented City's fourth place in the league; and keeping in touching distance of a top three league finish.

As I have said on previous occasions, while City persist with players like Marc Laird and Tuomas Haapala in midfield, they will struggle to win these games, that with the talent available throughout our junior ranks, should be a formality.

Danny Mills did not help matters with a woeful performance that put Matthew Mills and the returning Mikkel Bischoff under constant pressure at times.

City took the lead on ten minutes after a good opening spell from the blues. The goal came from a corner after Laird wanted too much time to get his shot off and it was blocked and rebounded kindly to Miller who hit a thunderous shot that ex-Manchester United goalkeeper, Gary Walsh did well to palm over for a corner. The resulting set piece was not fully cleared and David Sommeil, playing in an unfamiliar midfield role, stole round the back and curled a lovely cross in, which Miller evaded the off-side trap and headed in from three yards out.

City then seemed to go to sleep and apart from a Willo Flood shot, were kept on the back foot and it was no surprise to see Wigan draw level on thirty minutes when a through ball went to the feet of Andreas Johansson; Matty Mills kept close quarters and it appeared as though he managed to get the vital challenge in, but Johansson was strong and it was unclear whether it was him or Mills that got the last touch that squirmed the ball past a despairing Nick Weaver dive, who has rightly been offered a new contract.

Six minutes later City were behind when poor midfield play by Laird gave the ball back to Wigan and Alan Mahon slipped the ball through to City fan, Neil Mellor and his shot into the corner of the goal as the ball came of the inside of the post.

City were forced into a change on the stroke of half-time as Bischoff clattered into the back of Laird and Kelvin Etuhu came on to replace him.

Wigan again started the brighter and it was not until the fifty seventh minute when Shaleum Logan came on for Danny Mills did City look like a more controlled unit. It was within two minutes of this change that City were able to draw level. The quick thinking of Man of the Match, Ben Thatcher, sent a long throw forward to Miller who was able to turn and run into the box and force the illegal challenge that the referee duly awarded the penalty for. Miller cooly got up and slotted the penalty into the far corner, giving substitute goalkeeper, Floyd Croll, no chance what so ever.

As the match drew into the last twenty minutes, City pressed further up the field and a strong run and shot from Etuhu was well saved by Croll. From the dead ball, City made their third and most decisive substitution; bringing on Grimes for the largely ineffectual Karl Bermingham, which allowed the midfield to be shuffled once again to a more balanced shape.

Grimes' brace of goals came when Etuhu forced the defender into a mistake and he dispossessed him and he ran into the box and squared a balled which Grimes sent a half volley looping over Croll into the back of the net. Six minutes later Sommeil played a lovely through ball for Grimes who ran at the defence on the left and let his shot of that was deflected past Croll to seal the three points for City.


City: Weaver(GK),D Mills(Logan 57), Thatcher, Sommeil, M Mills, Bischoff, Flood(Capt.), Laird(Etuhu 45), Bermingham(Grimes 71), Miller, Haapala.

Subs: Matthewson(GK), D'Laryea.


Wigan: Walsh(GK)(Croll 46), Heywood, Waterhouse, Lee(Capt.), Roberts, Francis, Middleton, Mahon, Mellor(Litchfield 53), Johansson(Hazeldine 61), Owens.

Subs: Joyce, Montrose

Att: 339

MotM: Ben Thatcher - never let anything come down his side and should give a lack lustre Jordan some much needed first team competition.

Youth Cup Semi - Update

City will play the away leg at Newcastle's St James Park on Wednesday 15th March with a 7pm Kick off. The Home leg to be played at COMS has now been moved back 24 hours from the previously agreed date to Thursday 23rd March with a 7:30pm kick off.

http://www.thefa.com/TheFACup/TheFAYouthCup/Round-by-Round/Postings/2006/02/FAYC_semi_finals.htm

Academy Derby Off

Saturday's Academy mini derby with Manchester United at Platt lane is off due to frozen pitches. City now have two games to re-arrange as last week's away tie at West Brom was postponed also.

Youth Cup Semi

The home leg against Newcastle or Brighton(Tie to be played Tonight-1st) will be at COMS on 22nd March.