Our FA Youth Cup dream ended at the fourth round stage with a disappointing 4-2 defeat at Coventry City on Wednesday evening.
The young Reds will perhaps feel they didn’t do themselves justice in an uncharacteristically below par display against their Professional Development League rivals, who fully merited their place in the fifth round where they will face either Grimsby Town or Millwall.
A lively start to the encounter saw two goals in the opening four minutes, with our U18s drawing first blood as Fabio Jalo raced through and showed great composure to finish neatly into the bottom corner.
It was the perfect start for Nicky Eaden’s side, but that lead was extinguished in the blink of an eye as we failed to deal with a ball into the box and Rylie Siddall picked his spot to level in a frenetic start to this tie.
Less than ten minutes later and the Sky Blues had turned the contest on its head when Kai Andrews broke the offside trap, raced clear and placed his effort beyond Rogan Ravenhill.
Barnsley struggled to assert themselves in the encounter and were fighting an uphill battle shortly before the interval as Conrad Ambursley cut in from the left flank and curled a superb strike into the far top corner to double the hosts’ lead.
HALF-TIME: Coventry City 3-1 Barnsley
Coventry began the second half much like they ended the first and came close to adding a fourth within five minutes of the restart as Charlie Finney’s cross from the right evaded Ravenhill but clipped the woodwork and bounced clear.
The Reds pushed forward looking for a way back into the game, and Jalo drove at the City backline and took aim from the edge of the box but saw his shot hit the back of Emmaisa Nzondo and bobble out for a throw-in, which summed up our night.
Next, it was Bayley McCann to try his luck, only for Jayden Smith to bravely block his attempt, with Jonathan Bland heading wide from the resulting corner.
A change in formation to 4-3-3 at the break appeared to be bringing Barnsley more joy in wide areas, with full-backs overlapping the wingers to create overloads, and that’s where our next chance came from as McCann picked out Nzondo, but his header was straight at Luis Lines.
The Sky Blues still posed a threat on the counter, though, and nearly added a fourth when Siddall burst through on goal and fired inches wide of the far post.
That killer goal did eventually come to effectively end the tie as a contest through Aidan Dausch, who curled expertly into the bottom corner from 18-yards.
Two minutes into stoppage time, Jalo netted his second of the match, bundling in from a corner, but it would prove to be little more than consolation as we exited the competition.
FULL-TIME: Coventry City 4-2 Barnsley
REDS XI: Ravenhill (GK), Zozluk, R Woodcock (Graham, 46), Swift, Rayner (Alker, 46), McCann, Yoganathan, Bland (C), Jalo, Monteiro (Warburton, 83), Nzondo.
Not used: Andrassy (GK), Mbogba, Reid, Lundoloki.
COVENTRY XI: Lines (GK), Smith, Perry (C), Mantle (Stretton, 67), Gordon, Andrews, Siddall, Betjemann, Dausch, Finney (Shepherd, 85), Ambursley.
Not used: Rachel (GK), Blakely, Osaghae, Burden, James.
