FMFA Manager

Spurs U23 2 - 4 Reds U23

Our first half display was absolute world class and the last fifteen minutes of the half is perhaps the best I've seen from the youngsters. The second half was the opposite, the worst I've seeb from the youngsters. The first half an hour of the game saw both teams battling it out with chances for both sides to get the opening goal. The opening goal came in the 31st minute when Lee Jonas found Jack Darius on a deep run and his great finish earned us the lead. Three minutes later we doubled our lead when Paris Maghoma hit the ball up field to Oakley Cannonier and his shot from the outside of the right foot gave us a 2-0 lead. It didn't take long before we had scored our third of the evening. In the 37th minute Paris Maghoma dribbled past Brooklyn Lyons-Foster before his thundering shot took a wicked deflection and caught Jonathan De Bie on the wrong foot. De Bie could do nothing about it and we found ourselves 3-0 up. We continued to push for another goal before half time and two minutes before the break Oakley Cannonier grabbed a brace when his cheeky shot made it 4-0. All four goals scored inside twelve minutes.

In the second half we didn't look like ourselves and we let the home side score twice without getting on the scoresheet. It was a very disappointing performance and we can be glad we had performed outstanding in the first half. Overall we had 28 atttempts on goal while the host had only 8 attempts on goal. It was big difference between the two teams and we should have scored more. In the first half we made our chances count while the second half saw us miss every opportunity. Despite a poor finish to the game we have to be satisfied with the game overall and we came away with a good win.

Aston Villa U23s 1-0 Derby County U23s
Not the most entertaining of fixtures for the fans with an early goal from young Keilan Quinn enough to separate the sides on the day. We dominated the possession in the match but were unable to put away any more chances - not helped by an early injury to Rory Wilson. Fortunately that one wasn't as serious as first thought and he should be back for the next game. We are however very happy with a clean sheet meaning we have only conceded once in our five matches so far in all competitions - and that was on the opening day. It is now over 420 minutes of football since our defence was breached and long may that continue.

We have made the perfect start to the season with five straight wins and, although this was the closest of them, it's great to keep the run going. There are high expectations on us both internally and externally this season with many expecting us to win the league so questions will be asked if we fail once again. Whilst it isn't possible to win it as yet, we could have been on the way out of it by now with a few losses so it's great to have laid the basis for a positive season to come. Hopefully we can keep the wins coming.

Brentford U23s 0-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers U23s

We'd have liked to do more against a side who's manager didn't show up but an away win is always welcome. We left it very late though as Niall Ennis' winner came with virtually the final kick of the game. As it turns out that will be his final action for the club as the arrival of Nishan Burkart has subsequently seen him released. We wish him all the best in his future endeavours but it goes to show how ruthless we need to be in building this squad.

We remain undefeated in the league campaign and the season as a whole which is pleasing considering we didn't expect to do very well. We're not scoring as many as we would like but the defence is solid and will only keep improving. Early days but hopefully we can spend the season looking at the title picture rather than the relegation battle