U18 Match Report | Cardiff City 3-2 Bristol City
Cardiff City U18s defeated rivals Bristol City 3-2 in dramatic fashion at Cardiff International Sports Campus.
Goals from Will Spiers and Ronan Kpakio put the Bluebirds firmly in control, before the away side hit back with goals in the 84th and 86th minute to appear to pinch a point.
However, Trey George was on hand to finish a great move to win the game late-on and secure all three points.
Tom Hutton’s side dominated the game from early on, with both Jac Thomas and Jake Davies doing well to create chances but unable to convert. The deadlock was broken in the 26th minute, after the Bristol goalkeeper was penalised for handling the ball outside the area and Spiers made him pay by expertly converting the free kick following a one-two with Dan Barton.
And Cardiff City doubled the lead four minutes after half-time through Kpakio, who was on the end of a long ball from Thomas, and brilliantly chipped the keeper from outside the area.
Goalkeeper Luke Armstrong was on hand when he was called into action. He made a smart save to deny an equaliser and again late on, after the Bristol winger broke though the City backline, but was unable to beat the shot-stopper.
Bristol City scored twice in quick succession to level the score late on; however, Cardiff City heads never dropped. After some brilliant build-up play, the ball found its way to Kpakio, who squared the ball across goal for George to fire home and secure the win.
The result closes the gap at the top of the league, with Cardiff just six points off top with three games in hand. And next up for the Bluebirds is another derby with a trip to Swansea City on Saturday, March 2nd, 11am KO.
FINAL SCORE: CARDIFF CITY 3-2 BRISTOL CITY
Cardiff City: Armstrong ©, Spiers (Edwards 62’), Debono, Lester, Thomas, Barton (Twose 45’), Watts, Rees (Talbot 62’), Kpakio, Davies, George (Barton 90’). Subs Not Used: Jones
After the full-time whistle, we caught up with U18 head coach Hutton.
“Overall, it was a really pleasing performance," Tom began. "We did a lot of preparation in the week, both in the classroom and on the training pitch trying to prepare what we thought their style of play was going to be, which is often quite direct. But for the vast majority of the game, I think we stifled that and scored some really good goals ourselves.
“We conceded two late goals, but I have to give the boys credit, they showed resilience and real endeavour to go and get the winning goal which was a really well worked goal.
“The confidence comes from, in part, the result but also comes from performances, which working at youth development is one of the most important things. We’re working with quite a young group at the minute, we’ve had U16’s involved today, an U15 involved last week, and a lot of the boys are first year scholars. The most pleasing thing for me is seeing the improvement in individuals from where they were at the start of the season.”
Kpakio, who put in another fine display, added: "They’re obviously very direct in the way they play, we have to work very hard off the ball and make sure we win second balls and be gritty and make sure we work harder than them. So as a team, we did well to dig in. Despite conceding two late on, there was real quality in that third goal.
“It’s a very big game next against Swansea City of course, but so was today and this will give us a lot of confidence going into that. We know we can go there and compete and do well, we have the quality, we just have to work hard off the ball.
"Today is a massive confidence boost, it’s good to get a goal and an assist and I’m just looking forward to carrying on playing.”