Under-18s suffer Stellenbosch defeat

Our Under-18s were given a stern test by Stellenbosch in Sunday’s Premier League Next Generation Cup final at Loughborough University, with the South African side running out 2-0 winners.

After securing our place in the final by way of an impressive victory over Indian outfit Muthoot FA on Saturday, we met Stellenbosch for the second time in four days, having slipped to a 1-0 defeat to them in the group stage opener at Aston Villa’s training ground on Thursday.

But after having the better of the opening quarter-of-an-hour in the 25-minutes-each-way contest, we conceded twice in four minutes as the game got away from us.

Stellenbosch previously won the competition in 2022 before finishing as runners-up to Wolverhampton Wanderers last year, when it was hosted in India.

Ellis Lehane went through on goal in the opening moments but fired over the bar while Reiss Elliott-Parris went close from six yards out from a corner.

Goalkeeper Sam Archer made a superb save at the other end but couldn’t prevent Shaakir Ahmed from giving Stellenbosch a 31st-minute lead. Four minutes later Kyle Bailey added their second but although Luca Williams-Barnett was inches away with a 40-yard effort that had the Stellenbosch goalkeeper backpedalling, we couldn’t find a route back into the game.