After a quiet start on a personal level, the striker exploded into life with two deadly finishes, picking out the bottom corner with precision on 25 minutes before again clinically firing home after latching onto Cayon Hanson’s excellent ball forward with virtually the last action of the first period.
We’d travelled to the north east only needing a point to be sure of our place in the knockout stages – Newcastle would have leapfrogged us into top spot in Group G with a win and advanced at our expense – but we never looked in any serious danger as we stood up well to the physical battle presented to us and probably should have scored more, although goalkeeper Mikel Jack was required to make a couple of fine saves to preserve our first clean sheet of the season at this level.
Captain Tyler Tingey laid a poppy wreath on the centre spot on behalf of the club as both teams observed a minute’s silence prior to kick-off during this period of Remembrance but we were soon into the thick of the action, Kwasi Senyah coaxing a flying save out of Magpies goalkeeper George Mair, Joel Vidal-Philbert seeing a shot deflected agonisingly wide and Boast just unable to connect with Courtney Coffi Smith’s cross from six yards out in the middle of the box.
Vidal-Philbert was a lively influence on the left flank, sending in a number of dangerous deliveries, but we couldn’t take advantage and Newcastle nearly punished us when Michael Mills drilled just wide at the other end. Boast, though, found his rhythm and fired clinically across Mair and into the far corner on his right foot to give us a 25th-minute lead and we continued to push from there, two Newcastle players going into the book as they struggled to deal with our advances. Armend Muslika crashed a free-kick into the side-netting and Vidal-Philbert went close again before Boast latched onto Hanson’s ball forward and held off Lesecond Yeutembip to double our advantage in the second minute of first-half added time.
Newcastle upped their game after the restart and it was only a superb flying save from Jack that prevented substitute Jack Patterson from bringing them level, the keeper subsequently diving bravely at the feet of Jack Callaghan to deny the Magpies’ midfielder in our box.
Muslika had a loud penalty appeal waved away by the referee after going down in the box while substitute Harry Hughes looked bright on his first competitive appearance for our Under-18s after recovering from injury, the midfielder sending Boast through on goal with a clever pass, only for the striker to fire over the bar. Vidal-Philbert continued his supply line in from the left but neither Oliver Salter nor Phoenix Offiah could take advantage of separate deliveries, with the winger subsequently trying his luck himself with a rasping right-footed effort that forced another save from Mair seven minutes from time.
Some committed defending from Oscar Sandiford prevented the Magpies from finding a route to goal in the latter stages, although they did manage to muster one big chance a minute from time when centre-forward Alfie Hutchinson had a free header in the box, but Jack saved it sharply on his line and we went marching on into the last eight with maximum points from our three group stage games.
‘The overriding feeling is one of pride’
Under-18s Coach Jamie Carr said the players were thrilled not only to have qualified for the last eight, but also to have achieved a long-awaited clean sheet: “The whole group is over the moon,” he underlined. “It was a bit of a different test to what we come up against every week in terms of an overnight stay, playing against a team that we don’t often play against and a good team at that who are doing well in their league, so to come here, perform well, show a little bit of resilience and stick to the task of defending properly when we needed to during those periods of the game, we’re all over the moon.
“The overriding feeling is one of pride because we’ve been pushing the group for a while now to get a clean sheet and so for it to come today with a result that also pushes us into a quarter-final, it’s great. The most pleasing bit for me is when the final whistle goes and the whole team is celebrating the clean sheet – that’s the bit that matters and when we’ve spent the last two months working on our defending and you see the players making progress every day, the feeling in the dressing room is one of contentment.”
Jamie also praised the players for completing the first part of the competition with a 100 per cent record: “In our group, we’ve had had two difficult away games against teams from the northern division with Derby and Newcastle – plus Fulham at home – and we’ve been stretched, but we’ve still won three in a row which is really pleasing. When you think about the squad when we went to Derby near the start of the campaign and we looked a little bit fragile, getting pegged back from 3-0 up to 3-2, when you see the group now, we look totally different, even against a team who was trying to put pressure on us. I’m really glad we’ve got through the group.”
Line-up
Spurs: Jack, Sandiford, Jobling, Hanson, Tingey (c), Senyah, Coffi Smith (Salter 62), Glancy (Thomas 79), Boast (Offiah 79), Muslika (Hughes 72), Vidal-Philbert. Substitutes (not used): Cherifi, Philogene-Bidace, Olajide.