Under-18s breeze past Birmingham with another big win

After winning our first two Under-18 Premier League games 6-1, followed by a 3-2 triumph at Derby in the cup in midweek, we continued our free-scoring start to the season at this level with Oliver Boast netting three, Armend Muslika and Cameron Thomas two each – the latter with his first Under-18 goals – and Ollie Salter adding his second of the campaign to rack up an astonishing 8-2 victory at Hotspur Way.

Birmingham caused us a couple of problems at the back and scored two penalties, Lorenzo Greer making it 2-1 in the first half before Fynnley Hawkeswood bagged a consolation right at the end, but it was largely one-way traffic, particularly in the second half, as we breezed to three more points to maintain our early-season momentum.

Under-18s Coach Jamie Carr shuffled his pack with four changes to the team that had started our last two games and we needed less than three minutes to take the lead, Muslika roaming in from the left and driving a low ball across the six-yard box that defender Isifu Drammeh cleared against him, with the ball deflecting back inside the near post.

Play was held up moments later due to an unfortunate injury to Birmingham’s Liam Taylor – we wish him well – with the rhythm of the game perhaps affected for a while as a result, but we soon clicked back into gear and doubled our advantage on 27 minutes. Thomas, one of the players to come into the starting line-up, delivered a great ball from the right flank, Boast’s initial sweeping effort was repelled by goalkeeper Alfie Smith but the striker’s momentum saw him bundle the rebound back over the goal-line with defender Henry Pearsall also in the mix.

Birmingham responded with Greer pulling one back from the spot on the half-hour mark after being fouled by Zion Beckles, with Drammeh subsequently heading a good chance wide from a corner. However, we were swiftly back on the front foot and after firing a good chance just past the post on the break, Thomas made amends by arriving onto Joel Vidal-Philbert’s sweeping ball across from the left to ram home his first goal at this level in first-half stoppage time.

Muslika effectively killed the game off when he curled a peach of a shot into the top corner from just outside the box three minutes into the second period and from there we continued to turn the screw, with some excellent deliveries from the flanks leading to further goals. Cayon Hanson’s cross from the left was blasted home by Boast in the middle for 5-1 on 62 minutes, with substitute Melvyn Kabongolo producing an equally-impressive cross from the right 14 minutes later, from which Boast headed in his third.

Two minutes later Boast turned provider, cutting back for Salter to sweep inside the near post, before Thomas drilled low inside the far bottom corner to complete our side of the scoreline six minutes from time. Boast had the ball in the net again moments later but saw his effort ruled out for offside with Blake Philogene-Bidace subsequently seeing an angled shot blocked by Smith at his near post. Hawkeswood netted another penalty for Birmingham three minutes into added time after Thomas had been adjudged to have fouled Mordecai Jones, but that was merely a footnote in the story of another impressive win.

‘Mixed feelings’

Coach Jamie was pleased with the victory, but highlighted that there were a number of aspects of the game that needed improvement: “I’ve got mixed feelings, really,” he told SPURSPLAY. “In the first half we were disappointed with how the lads played and although the scoreline suggests that it was somewhat comfortable at that stage, it certainly didn’t feel that way from our point of view. Our message at half-time was that the standards had to be better and we had to make improvements.”

With 20 league goals scored in our first three games of the season – 23 if you count the Under-18 Premier League Cup – Jamie spoke positively about our attacking form: “Credit to the players from that point of view,” he said. “They’ve shown a real cutting edge at times this season already which has been pleasing to see, not only the starting players but also the subs that have come on and really helped us in those moments, but the piece that we need to start to consider now is making sure that we don’t give away so many sloppy goals, because there’s been games this season where we’ve probably unnecessarily conceded one or two. That was the message post-game to the boys, that it’s great that we’re scoring but when the games become tougher and harder we won’t be getting eight or nine chances a game so we’ll have to be a little bit more clinical in front of goal and we’ll also have to keep the defence tight and make sure that we don’t concede.”

Line-up

Spurs: Jack, Thomas, Olajide, Hanson (Agyekum 73), Tingey (c) (Evans 73), Beckles (Salter 54), Coffi Smith, Glancy (Philogene-Bidace 63), Boast, Muslika, Vidal-Philbert (Kabongolo 63). Substitutes (not used): Doran, Offiah.