Premier U-18 League Cup 2018-19
    Hotspur Way, Whitewebbs Lane, Enfield
    Saturday 29th September 2018, 12 noon

          SPURS      v     WOLVES
      (White/Blue)      (Gold/Black)
         4-1-4-1           4-2-3-1
 
           2(1)              1(0)

   Joshua Oluwayemi  1  Jamie Pardington
     Maximus Tainio  2  Ray O'Sullivan
      Dennis Cirkin  3  Kevin Berkoe
       Harvey White  4  Aaron Crabtree(C)
    Maxwell Statham  5  Lewis Richards
Brooklyn Lyons-Foster6  Pascal Estrada
Maurizio Pochettino  7  Luke Cundle
 Armando Shashoua(C) 8  Todd Parker
     Rodel Richards  9  Austin Samuels
  Phoenix Patterson 10  Taylor Perry
       Rayan Clarke 11  Taylor Townsend

    Jubril Okendina 12  Joseph Joseph
          (2)58Mins
  Kacper Kurylowicz 13
     Elliott Thorpe 14  Jed Abbey
                        (8)79Mins
 Christopher Cooper 15  Judd Forrester
         (10)74Mins
    Jeremie Mukendi 16  He Zheung
          (7)58Mins     (6)66Mins
                    17  Conor Carty
                        (7)70Mins

Scorers:-
    White 24 (pen)        Samuels 86
    Lyons-Foster 70

Coach:-
         Matt Wells     Darren Ryan

Referee:– Jonathan Hill

It was a bright sunny morning for the first group game of the U-18 Premier League Cup which was supposed to have beeen at Wolverhampton's training ground but was switched to Spurs because of building work. Wolves play in the Northern League and are currently down in tenth place after losing 4-0 to Stoke last week. Unbeaten Spurs top the Southern League after hammering the "Hammers" 9-0 in their last league game. The other teams in Spurs League Cup group are Swansea and Middlesbrough. Last season Spurs got to the final before losing 2-0 to Chelsea.

Spurs lined up with Oluwayemi behind Statham and Lyons-Foster with Tainio at right back and Cirkin on the left. White anchored the midfield with Shashoua and Patterson ahead of him. They were flanked by Pochettino on the right and Clarke on the left in support of Richards up front.

Spurs defended the North end in the first half and quickly got on top of the visitors using the pace of Clarke on the left and the quick feet of Patterson and Shashoua in the centre, backed by White allied to the strength of Richards up front.

Richards had an early effort cleared off the line having been played in by Shashoua. Pardington saved from White before Perry won a corner for the visitors. Wolves' Richards headed wide before Spurs' Richards turned a cross from Clarke wide. Spurs won a penalty when Lyons-Foster had got forward and was bundled over in the area. White stepped up to hit the spot kick straight down the middle to take the lead.

Spurs continued to press with Richards heading a free kick by White wide. Clarke got down the left and forced a save for a corner as the half drew to a close and we wondered if all the missed crosses, mainly from the left would come back to haunt them.

There were no changes for the start of the second half with Spurs continuing as they finished the first. Shashoua played in Clarke for a chance that was saved while Patterson fired wide and Richards' effort was saved. Cirkin exchanged passes with Clarke to get into the area but his effort was blocked.

Wolves then had a great chance to score when Samuels just failed to make contact with Berkoe's cross. After Shashoua fired over, Spurs made a double change replacing Tainio and Pochettino on the right with Okendina and Mukendi.

Mukendi cut in from the right to see his effort saved and Patterson had his follow-up blocked with the ball being put out for a corner. Following another corner, Clarke found Richards who fired wide. The Spurs striker had another effort wide before Spurs finally got their second goal. This came from a right side corner by Patterson that was headed in at the near post by Lyons-Foster. That should have been it and Spurs introduced Cooper for his first game replacing Patterson.

Wolves pushed players forward looking for a goal with Carty drawing a save from Oluwayemi. White hit a lovely free kick over the wall only to see Pardington get across to push it away for a corner. Wolves got a goal back when Samuels scored from a ball in by Perry and then they pushed for another. Cooper had the last chance of the game when he drew a save from Pardington.

Spurs dominated the game with plenty of crosses and corners but the Wolves defence did well to prevent a bigger defeat. In the other game Middlesbrough beat Swansea 6-1 which puts them in a good position to qualify for the knockout stages.

Ray

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