First-half goals from Reiss Elliott-Parris and Oliver Boast proved enough to give our Under-18s victory over Derby County and send us through as group winners in the Under-18 Premier League Cup on Saturday.
Elliott-Parris finished off a good move involving Malachi Hardy and Miracle Adewole in the opening moments at Hotspur Way, before fellow striker Boast doubled our lead just prior to the interval of what was our third and final Group H fixture in the competition.
Derby pulled one back through Charlie Smith’s free kick in a scrappy second half, but we rode the game out to secure a 2-1 win and book our place in the quarter-finals.
With only the first-placed side from each four-team section progressing to the knockout stages, we knew we needed maximum points against the Rams to advance after Reading’s high-scoring win against Burnley earlier in the day – there had been a potential scenario at the start of the weekend where we could have finished level with Derby and possibly Reading too in all metrics had our match ended all square, with the clubs’ disciplinary records called upon to decide the winners in that eventuality.
But while Israel Green threatened on a handful of occasions in the first period for Derby – Blake Irow saving everything the winger threw at him – and with a large portion of the second period played out in our half, we were able to dig in and secure the victory.
Our opening goal after four minutes was a thing of beauty as centre-back Hardy – just back from England’s Under-17 World Cup campaign – struck a fine diagonal pass out to Adewole on the left, who took a superb first touch before delivering for Elliott-Parris to convert from close range. Boast dragged a shot across goal and wide just afterwards while Armend Muslika and Elliott-Parris also threatened, but we allowed the visitors to get a foothold in the contest and Green made inroads down their left flank on a handful of occasions, firing off-target before being denied three times by Irow before the first half was out.
Thankfully for us, though, a second goal on the stroke of half-time strengthened our position, Muslika and Tye Hall combining to set up Boast, who scored with a shot-on-the-turn from inside the box on the right.
The second period was gritty and Derby’s goal in the 66th minute – a low free-kick around the wall from Smith – represented the first real action of note at either end. The Rams had tried a handful of shots from distance before that, but a few minutes later it needed a superb save from Irow diving away to his right to prevent James Ward from firing the visitors level. Our defence remained firm, though, and with the rain closing in on a gloomy day, we made it to the final whistle to win the group with seven points from a possible nine.
‘We were up against it at times’
Interim Under-18s Coach Joe Staunton admitted the Rams gave us a tough examination, but was delighted to get through to the last eight.
“We’re really pleased to have qualified from the group – it’s one of the objectives that we set for the players, so we’re really pleased over the course of the three games we’ve managed to get ourselves into a position where we can have further matches in the competition,” he told SPURSPLAY.
“We started the game really well and scored a terrific goal which was testament to the start that we had. There were periods within the first half where we had to defend the penalty box quite well to keep ourselves in a 1-0 lead and to score a second goal so close to half-time gave us the best opportunity to go and take the game forwards. We were up against it at times in the second half and we had to ride our luck at times, but all credit to the lads because we’ve headed, blocked, tackled, defended set-pieces and managed to see the game out in the end.”