Darren Ryan's Wolves under-18s battled hard but were narrowly defeated 1-0 by Manchester City in the Premier League Under-18 North.
Henri Ogunby scored the only goal, with a diving header past Jackson Smith.
Both sides started strong with both teams attacking quickly and repetitively. Wolves’ Terry Taylor shot just over, after winning the ball deep in the visitors’ territory.
Meanwhile, City's D’Margio Wright-Phillips would have tapped home Nabil Touaizi's cross, but for good defending by Callum Thompson. Then, soon after, Ogunby put the visitors ahead with a header during a period of sustained pressure on the Wolves defence.
Ryan’s team began the second half strongly. Connor Carty had a chance to level the score one-on-one, but his shot was well saved by Gavin Bazunu. City substitute Fisayo Dele-Bashiru then forced an excellent save from Smith as they counter-attacked, as Wolves pressed high in search of an equaliser.
Taylor almost snatched an equaliser, but his shot from Theo Corbeanu's cross fell just wide, and Wolves were narrowly beaten.
MOMENT OF THE MATCH
The build-up play to give Taylor the last chance of the game included great footwork and accurate passing across involving the whole Wolves squad, something that Ryan is glad to see such an improvement in within his team.
QUOTES
Ryan was keen to draw on his side's improvement in recent weeks. He said: “It is frustrating to lose football games but we’ve seen a massive improvement in the players individually and as a team over the past three months.
“We are a young team and we are building and looking towards next season. The performances against the top four teams have been pretty good. It's been frustrating to lose. I think this group see the benefits and see that they’re playing well and not quite reaping the rewards just yet.”
COMING UP
Wolves will next be in action on 13th April where they will travel to Blackburn Rovers as they search for a first league win of 2019.
NEXT FIVE
13/04 | Blackburn (A)
16/04 | West Brom (A)
24/04 | Middlesbrough (A)
27/04 | Derby (H)
TEAMS
Wolves (3-5-2) | Smith; Trialist; Marques; Joseph (Crabtree, 46’); Hodnett (Sangare 88’); Taylor; Perry (Parker, 80’); Thompson; Carty; Cundle; Corbeanu.
Man City (4-3-3) | Bazunu; Dounkou (Robinson, 69’); Amankwah; Sobowale; Ogbeta; Hodge (Simmonds, 69’); Wright-Phillips; Knight (Dele-Bashiru, 59’); Touaizi; McAtee; Ogunby.
