The young Bluebirds defeated the Lions on Tuesday afternoon.
MATCH SUMMARY
City’s U21 side battled to a decisive 4-0 victory over Millwall on Tuesday afternoon.
The young Bluebirds got off to a great start, opening the scoring on the 11-minute mark via Trey George’s deflected effort just outside the area, looping into the back of the net. City doubled their lead on the stroke of half time, with Mannie Barton capitalising on a mistake from Lions defender Ed Payton to win a penalty, which was coolly converted by Will Spiers.
After the break, Barton got on the scoresheet himself with a low effort into the corner to make it three, before doubling his total for the afternoon minutes later with another strike past George Evans low into the left corner to make it 4-0.
The result pushes City up to third in the PDL South table and are now unbeaten in their last four matches in the league.
POST-MATCH | DARREN PURSE & JACK KINGDON
DP: “It was a good performance, they’re usually a very physical side and try and get after you and I think we managed that quite well so I’m delighted with the performance. To score four goals is always very good and the boys are in a good reign of form at the moment.”
“The performances are there which is the biggest thing for me and the results are coming along. The boys are taking on what we’re instructing, a lot of the work is done on the tactics board rather than in training at the minute but they’re taking it on well and long may this run continue.”
“Mannie [Barton] is doing well, he scored against Burnley the other night in a similar fashion to today. He’s cutting in from that right hand side and getting his goals there, although he would prefer playing off the left all of his goals are coming from the right, but he’s in a good bit of form and let’s see if he can continue that going into the game into Friday’s game."
JK: “I thought the boys did really well, they dug in for the full 90 minutes and everyone was tracking back and doing their defensive duties and the defenders did all their attacking duties so everyone was giving it all which was pleasing.”
“I thought we dealt with them well, we defended well on set-pieces and we felt they wanted to play it longer today which we dealt with that well too. The boys are playing with lots of confidence, we’ve got a great group and we are training with lots of intensity which is helping us going in the game.”
PRE-MATCH | DARREN PURSE
Ahead of kick-off, Darren Purse shared his thoughts on Tuesday's fixture, with City preparing for two important home fixtures this week.
"We're really looking forward to it," began Darren. "In these double game weeks we want the boys to have an awareness and understanding of what it's like to play two games in a week, which reflects that relentless schedule that the First Team has.
"It's good for the boys to prepare and take on information, and also rest and recover between matches so that they can push themselves when times get hard. It's important, and good for us that they're at home, where there's not so much travelling involved, so we're hoping for two positive results and to continue the good run we've been on lately.
"Millwall are a good side, and quite rigid in the way that they play. They're very good at it, and we've got to match them and stand up to that. If you look at our game against Burnley last week, I thought that we were outstanding for large parts of it but unfortunately came off without the result because we couldn't take our chances.
"It will be the same this week, if we take our chances we'll be alright, and if we don't then we could make things difficult for ourselves. It's always a big test and Tuesday will be no different.
"The nature of U21 football means that we think fixture-by-fixture. You may not know what players you will have available from one fixture to the next, or one day to the next at times, so it's about planning as best we can as a staff and a playing group, taking each training day and match as it comes.
"We prepare as best we can, and hopefully we'll get a positive outcome as a result of that planning."
RECENT RESULTS
City head into Tuesday afternoon's fixture in fifth place on the PDL South table, having earned 11 points from six matches played.
Before their defeat against Burnley in the Premier League Cup last week, the young Bluebirds had been on a three-match unbeaten run in all competitions, and will look for a return to form against the Lions to kick off the start of a busy week.
Last time out in the PDL, Darren Purse's side defeated Watford 2-0 away from home, with Troy Perrett and Jake Davies both on the scoresheet at Vicarage Road.
TICKET INFORMATION
Entry for the match at Cardiff International Sports Campus will be free for all supporters.
REACHING THE GROUND
Supporters planning on attending should use the following address:
Cardiff International Sports Campus, Leckwith Rd, Cardiff, CF11 8AZ.
The ground is located an 11-minute walk away from Ninian Park Station and a 32-minute walk from Cardiff Central Station.