U23s/youth watch

Game over - Villa 1-0 winners

Team: Johansson, Leggett (C), Suliman, Bedeau, Calder, Blackett-Taylor, O'Hare, Sellars, McKirdy, Green, Davis

I like Green. He's going to be one of our stars for the future.

Andre Green’s second half goal secured victory for Villa’s youngsters against Norwich City at Carrow Road.

Centre-back Jacob Bedeau made his first appearance in claret and blue since joining from Bury on transfer deadline day.

And it was the ball-playing defender who carved Villa’s first opening, his pass picked out Green wide left, the latter’s whipped in cross just evading Keinan Davis.

Moments later, the visitors went close once more – Harry McKirdy let fly from a tight angle – Ben Killip with a smart save.

Much like in the Premier League International Cup game last month, the contest soon opened up.

For Norwich, Diallang Jaiyesimi’s long range power-driver edged just wide of Viktor Johansson’s goal while Ebou Adams’ attempt was marginally over the target.

At the other end, Callum O’Hare pounced on a loose ball, his first-time volley was gathered.

The Canaries were quick out of the traps as the second period got underway.

Joe Crowe’s header was wide before lively winger Glenn Middleton embarked on a super run only to shoot off target.

They could and should have been ahead just shy of the hour  - Todd Cantwell’s effort crashing off the woodwork.

Villa always looked a threat and took the lead on 67 minutes – Green latching onto Davis’ clever through ball and finishing well.

It’s always said attack is the best form of defence and this was clearly the message from the Villa bench.

Green continued to unnerve the home side’s backline with his runs and ability to cut inside while Davis’ first-time effort went agonisingly wide after a clever ball over the top from O’Hare.

And the visitors demonstrated good game management skills to see the game out and their first win since November 26.

Line-ups

NORWICH U23: Killip (C), Ramsay, Efete, Odusina, Lewis, Crowe, Adams; Jaiyesimi, Cantwell, Middleton, Ashley-Seal. Unused subs: Syme, Hallett (GK), Aarons, Sambu, Spyrou.

VILLA U23: Johansson, Leggett (C), Suliman, Bedeau, Calder, Blackett-Taylor, O'Hare, Sellars, McKirdy (Prosser 55), Green, Davis. Unused subs: Idem, Linley, Clarke.

Misconduct summary

Bookings – Norwich
Michee Efete
Louis Ramsay
Ebou Adams

Bookings – Villa
Jerell Sellars
Easah Suliman
Keinan Davis
Andre Green

Already posted.

Great thread this one, really feels like there are some gems among this lot and for me its time to add a certain Jack Grealish to their ranks for a while with instructions to prove himself to be the complete package or cash the mofo in come the summer.

TBH I've failed to mention the U18s, who won 7-0 recently in the youth cup (albeit against a team who had beaten all the odds to get to that round). I think they play Man City (favourites) in the quarter finals next.
I'm sure I read that the match was live streamed and broke a record for the streaming platform it was on - something like 1.5 million viewers, or some crazy figure.
I'll see what I can dig out, but no doubt we have a couple of gems in that lot as well.

achilles wrote:Already posted.

??

Here it is:

Aston Villa’s live broadcast of the Broxbourne Borough FA Youth Cup clash was a resounding success – with social media stats for the game hitting an all-time high.

Villa worked alongside UNILAD to provide the fifth round encounter on Facebook Live.

The screening achieved a reach of 6.5million and 1.5million views – which was over 900% higher than our previous broadcast of the U23 encounter with Middlesbrough.

The game was also a success on the pitch with Villa’s Young Lions running out 7-0 winners – and setting up a quarter-final home tie with Manchester City.

Aston Villa Head of Media & Content, Will Radford said: “We were delighted to team up with UNILAD – and the live stream was a terrific success.  

“We have enjoyed excellent viewing figures for our Facebook Live broadcasts in the past, with fans eager to see claret and blue action as it happens – and this was certainly no exception.

“We were delighted with the fan engagement achieved and we will be striving to offer more live coverage in the future.”


Established in 2014, by millennials for millennials, as a single Facebook channel and website, UNILAD has expanded into the world’s leading social first publisher with just under a billion engagements, and over 25 billion video views in 2016 alone.

UNILAD Head of Marketing, Sam Asante added: "We were pleased to be able to show Saturday’s FA Youth Cup game between Aston Villa and Broxbourne Borough.

"The FA Youth Cup is a prestigious tournament, which has previously been the platform for some of this country’s finest players, to showcase their pedigree.

"This was the first time UNILAD has broadcast a live football match - and we were delighted to be able to bring the next generation of talent to our wider audience.”

De Kuip wrote:

achilles wrote:Already posted.

??

I was going to post the report but by the time I posted it you had already done it!

Ah! Sorry wasn't sure what you meant. No problem mate there'll be plenty of times when I forget to post reports haha

Just a heads up folks that the U18s quarter final against Man City is being shown live on the avfc official Facebook feed tomorrow. I think it starts at 18.45 (the feed that is).
I'm out tomorrow but I'll try and catch the first half.
Hopefully be some light relief from the seniors.

Have Man City got any English players?

Yeah they're all Raheem Stirling''s kids apparently. ...

Didn't manage to catch the game in the end and sadly Villa U18s went down 2-1 to Man City.  It sounded like we gave a good account of ourselves against the cup favourites, a team that has just won the league and unbeaten in 22 games. In the end they had too much quality for our lads
Good experience though and a good performance by all accounts.
Nearly 1000 people there to watch which wasn't bad for a wet Wednesday in Feb.

Game details

Match: Aston Villa v Manchester City
Date: February 22, 2017
Competition: FA Youth Cup, quarter-final
Venue: Villa Park
Kick-off: 7pm
Attendance: 964
Weather: 9C, rain

Scoring summary

Johan Abdoul (8 mins)
Jadon Sancho (12 mins)
Matthew Smith (88 mins)

Analysis

Villa’s youngsters bowed out of the FA Youth Cup at the quarter-final stage, despite producing a valiant display against Man City at Villa Park.

Matthew Smith’s 88th-minute goal proved to be the clincher after the claret and blues had demonstrated great discipline, passion and belief to restrict their opponents to mainly long-range attempts.

David Hughes’ men got off to the perfect start – left-back Johan Abdoul heading home following a well-worked free-kick from Jake-Doyle-Hayes.

City, who lifted the U18 Premier League North title last weekend having won 17 and drawn four of their 21 league fixtures to date, levelled four minutes later – Jadon Sancho squeezing his strike through the tightest of gaps in the penalty area.

The visitors dictated possession and general pace of the contest while Villa looked more potent on the counter-attack.

Stopper Viktor Johansson pulled off two vital interventions – both from Brahim Diaz’s close-range attempts.

Villa’s set pieces troubled the visitors and they could have regained their advantage just shy of the interval.

Doyle-Hayes’ delivery, again precise – James Finnerty’s header well held.

The claret and goal in front of the North Stand led a charmed life in the early stages of the second half but to their great credit, the home side were organised and defended well

Continuing their slick, attacking play Joel Latibeaudiere and Diaz saw efforts strike the crossbar while Ed Francis’ header was cleared off the line by Abdoul.

Hughes’ side weathered the storm and began to carve openings of their own – skipper Doyle-Hayes firing over after neat and intelligent build-up from Harvey Knibbs.

They worked tirelessly throughout but their resilience was broken with two minutes of the 90 remaining.

Sancho strong down the left flank, his cross reached Smith whose strike deflected into the net.

Line-ups

VILLA: Johansson, Walker, Clark, Finnerty, Abdoul, Prosser, Doyle-Hayes (C), Clarke, Knibbs, Mooney, Cox. Unused subs: Idem, Williams, Hall, Coates, Rowe.

MAN CITY: Muric, Frimpong, Latibeaudiere (C), Francis, Wilson, Smith, Bolton, Dele-Bashiru, Diaz, Foden (Nmecha 60), Sancho. Unused subs: Scott, Diallo, Richards, Gonzalez

Misconduct summary

Bookings – Villa
None

Bookings – Man City
Ed Francis
Lukas Nmencha

Officials

Referee: Christopher Sarginson
Assistant referee 1: Christopher Husband
Assistant referee 2: Joe Clark
Fourth Official: Craig Taylor

Highly commendable effort against very, very strong opposition (and exorbitantly expensive)!

By all accounts they're an exciting team and Wyness seems to have made it pretty clear that the club will really be promoting the hell out of the junior sides to get the youngsters around Brum who have talent to come to us instead of the likes of West Brom.

Long overdue as well. Look how resilient Southampton are despite getting raided all the time. Great youth supply line there.

Quick question for those who follow our youths. Do we have any half talented enforcer or defensive midfielder that can make the step up? I'm only asking cause to me Jedinak doesn't have the legs anymore. If we don't have a young DM in the youths, we really gotta sign one in the summer.

I only loosley follow the youth/u23/u18 or whatever they are called !

I am wrong in sensing an upturn in results performances lately ?

Joppe84 wrote:Quick question for those who follow our youths. Do we have any half talented enforcer or defensive midfielder that can make the step up? I'm only asking cause to me Jedinak doesn't have the legs anymore. If we don't have a young DM in the youths, we really gotta sign one in the summer.

Khalid Abdo -Ive heard he really puts himself about a bit...

Abdo is more of a playmaker (from what I've read), he was training with the first team then got injured, he's fit again now, so we'll see what happens. Lyden and Mason were two defensive midfielders we had coming through, although Mason seems to have switched to defence, not sure what's happened to Lyden.

I'm hoping that as many of our youngsters as possible will prove themselves to be good enough for our first team, hopefully a few more will get a chance before the season ends. Watching the Hong Kong Sevens last summer and Harry McKirdy looked a really good player, surprised with our striker shortage he hasn't at least been in contention for a place on the bench.

harry mckirdy has been on loan at stevenage all season if memory serves me right

Jae1411 wrote:harry mckirdy has been on loan at stevenage all season if memory serves me right

Came back in January, methinks

McKirdy came back, Henry Cowans is still there.