Our U18s secured a second win in a row in the league on Tuesday morning with 3-1 victory over Cardiff City which saw two red cards and several bookings throughout the encounter.
The young Reds didn’t look rusty despite the long break in between fixtures and took control of the game from the first few minutes. Within 20 minutes, we were 2-0 up. A Cardiff City own-goal and a great first-time finish by Emmaisa Nzondo after being played through on goal put us in a commanding position.
Cardiff were no bystanders, however, and they began to show their hand at the end of the first half and had a strong appeal for a penalty dismissed. A powerful attempt by a Bluebirds forward appeared to strike the arm of one of our defenders, however, with his arms by his side, the referee remained unmoved.
When in possession, Barnsley played some fantastic football at times. Ziggy Kozluk had a big part to play in the first half, playing high up the right side and causing problems for the visiting full-backs. In the centre of the pitch, Luke Alker appeared to play slightly deeper, allowing Rafael Monteiro and Nzondo to run into the space up front. This almost paid off again as Alker dinked the ball to Monteiro in the box, who unfortunately couldn’t control the ball properly with his chest.
HALF-TIME: Barnsley 2-0 Cardiff City
The second half was a chaotic affair, after appearing to pick up where we left off in the first half, the game was flipped on its head when Nzondo received a red card for lashing out at Cardiff goalkeeper Luke Armstrong.
We felt the pressure after this and were forced to defend fiercely to keep City at bay. Nerves began to rise in the 65th minute when they reduced the deficit through Ronan Kpakio with a low-driven right-footed shot into the bottom right corner.
Five minutes later, Barnsley received a lifeline as Cardiff had a man sent off themselves, this time for dissent, allowing the backline to breathe a momentary sigh of relief.
With all the momentum, our U18s finally got their third and final goal of the match as skipper Jonathan Bland rose highest to head home a corner.
Cardiff, becoming more and more desperate to score as the clock slowly ticked down, piled more players forward to find a way back into the contest. It never came though, as Barnsley’s defence stood firm to prevent the Bluebirds from ever really testing Rogan Ravenhill in net.
The win sees us consolidate second place in the Professional Development League, with four games in hand on league leaders Birmingham City, who hold a 13 point advantage at the summit.
FULL-TIME: Barnsley 3-1 Cardiff City
REDS XI: Ravenhill, Kozluk, McCann, Swift, Thompson, Wilkinson, Yoganathan, Bland, Alker, Monteiro, Nzondo.
Subs: Lundoloki, Reid, Graham, Tommy-Mbogba.
