Our valiant U21s fell to two quickfire goals in a 2-1 defeat at runaway Professional Development League leaders Sheffield United on Friday afternoon.
Oli Shaw gave the young Reds a first half lead, but goals from Antwoine Hackford and Louie Marsh after the interval turned the South Yorkshire derby on its head as we left York City’s LNER Community Stadium empty handed.
Some lovely link-up play between Shaw and our trialist left-back in the opening stages resulted in a ball being played across goal. A marauding run from Jordan Helliwell was almost rewarded, but his poked effort was kept out by Callum Yam in the Blades’ goal.
Midway through the half, Shaw was the man to break the deadlock and put the Reds deservedly ahead. A lovely dink over the top from Aiden Marsh was collected the Scottish forward, who cleverly squeezed past two defenders – beating the offside trap – before neatly slotting past the onrushing goalkeeper from a tight angle.
In the search for a second goal, a quick corner kick from Josh Martin was fired to Harrison Nejman on the edge of the box, but our captain could only fire over the crossbar.
Just before half-time, the Reds almost doubled their lead from a free-kick as Martin took aim from distance, but Yam was equal to his strike with an acrobatic save.
HALF-TIME: Sheffield United 0-1 Barnsley
Sheffield United came out a different team after the break, looking to create more chances going up the pitch, and tested Rogan Ravenhill within the first few minutes of the restart.
On the hour mark, we almost scored a second when our trialist left-back surged forward before seeing his attempted parried into the path of Helliwell, whose follow-up strike was deflected behind for a corner.
The Blades found the leveller 10 minutes later through a real stroke of luck as Hackford’s strike from the edge of the box took a wicked deflection off Jonathan Bland, leaving Ravenhill stranded as it spiralled into the opposite corner.
Moments later, United completed their turnaround when Marsh fired a low drive into the far corner from the right hand side of the area.
Our U21s searched for an elusive equaliser as time ticked away, with Shaw coming agonisingly close to doubling his own tally but shooting narrowly wide, while Martin could also only find the side netting in a late rally.
Despite the defeat, there were plenty of encouraging signs from the young Reds, who are next in action on 14 March when Burnley visit South Yorkshire.
FULL-TIME: Sheffield United 2-1 Barnsley
REDS XI: Ravenhill, Helliwell, Trialist, Bland, Pache, D Benson, Trialist, Nejman (C), Shaw, Martin, Marsh.
Subs: Carter-Rogers, Jalo, Butterfill, Joof, Makiessi.