Wolves under-18s will go into 2022 with a lot of confidence, having put together one of their most impressive performances of the season to dominate Stoke City on the road.
With the under-23s not in action last weekend, Steve Davis was able to name almost his strongest line-up, with several development team regulars – who usually play above their age – such as captain Ollie Tipton, Harry Birtwistle and Harvey Griffiths, dropping down to face their peers from Stoke.
Although the sides matches each other in the opening stages of the game and went into half-time level pegging with the score remaining goalless, Wolves put the Potters to the sword in the closing half-hour at Clayton Wood.
Josh Esen put the old gold in front on 60 minutes when a long kick from goalkeeper Palmi Arinbjornsson fell to Mason Rees in midfield, who set Owen Farmer inside to play a defence splitting pass to the Welsh youngster to slide the ball beyond Stoke keeper Tommy Simkin.
Substitute Nathan Fraser, fresh off his first Molineux goal in the FA Youth Cup the previous week, scoring twice in two minutes to see Davis’ side well ahead and put the points in the bag. The striker’s first coming from a glancing header off Birtwistle’s cross, before adding a second in as many minutes when he was picked out in the six-yard box by a Dexter Lembikisa cross, before swivelling and hooking the ball into the top far corner of the net.
Having bemoaned the fact his players allowed Salford City to get on the scoresheet in the cup once they were three goals to the good in their previous outing, Davis would have been happy to see no such repeat in their final game of 2021, with Birtwistle giving his side a four-goal cushion in added time, capitalising on a defensive mix-up to intercept a pass before lifting the ball over Simkin.
The victory lifts Wolves up to fourth in the U18 Premier League North table going into the new year, just a point behind reigning champions Manchester City and two behind Liverpool, with a game in hand over the Reds.
REACTION
Head coach Steve Davis was felt his side were more than deserving of the three points, having given his players a bit more responsibility than usual in leading the game plan themselves. He said: “I thought we were good and well worth the win. I put it on to them a little bit on Saturday, and told them to be creative and drive it, and for them to almost coach the game between themselves.
“It was a good opportunity to allow them to do that because they’re an intelligent group who have quite a lot of experience of playing up the age groups. There’s enough characters and leaders in that group for them to be able to do that now.
“It was nice, at times, to be able to sit back and watch them, and there were plenty of leaders out there on the pitch. They matched us up in the first-half in terms of shape, it was a bit closer and we just about edged it for chances, but it was fairly even, and then we stepped it up in the second-half.
“I always felt there were extra gears which we could use as the game went on; we played a lot faster, pressed a lot higher, put them under pressure and got the goals to win comfortably in the end.”
On starting with his strongest possible line-up
“With the under-23s game being called off, it gave me the chance to play the ‘FA Youth Cup’ team, or the closest team to it.
“Because of the lack of opportunity to get all those lads together as they are split between the 23s and the 18s, with quite a few playing up now, it was a good opportunity to actually bring all the scholars together, not just playing, but also socially.
“We felt it was a chance we should take and give them all a go together. Apart from Josh coming in for Nathan because of loading issues – we wanted to look after Nathan because he’s been playing a lot for us and the 23s recently – but he came on for the last half-hour and banged two goals in two minutes.
“We’ve still got a few lads to come back from injury, such as Kam [Kandola], Ty [Barnett] and Temple [Ojinnaka] who would be pushing for places in this team, so it’ll be good to get those lads back and boost the squad into the new year.”
On the experience his young players already have
“When everyone’s fit, we’ve got a really strong squad of scholars and I quite enjoyed having the opportunity to sit back and watch them play, and this game showed just how good the group are.
“Before our game with Salford, I wrote the true ‘under 18’ squad down and there was only two who hadn’t had any exposure to under-23 level, and that was Nathan and Josh. Since then, Nathan’s played a couple of games for them and made a real impact coming off the bench as he gives them something a bit different to what they have.
“Now, it’s only Josh, but he came in late to the programme, so will take a little bit more time than the others because he’s still catching up with a lot of things and he’s still settling into the club. That will make it tougher for him to break through to the 23s at the moment, but maybe we will revisit that next year.
“Everyone else either trains regularly, plays some sort of part off the bench or even starts regularly for James [Collins, under-23 head coach], and, because of that challenge they’ve had with the 23s, playing against older players and better teams, when they do play for the 18s, everything is all that much easier due to the way they’ve improved and developed.
“Having so many in there at the moment, and that 23s team being really young, it stands us in good stead because they looked more than comfortable against a really good Stoke team.”
COMING UP
The under-18s now have a three-week Christmas break until the return to U18 Premier League Cup action against Birmingham City at Compton Park on Thursday 6th January, before facing Liverpool in the league two days later.
NEXT FIVE
06/01 Birmingham City (H) U18 PLC
08/01 Liverpool (H)
13/01 Crystal Palace (A) FAYC
22/01 Nottingham Forest (A)
27/01 Middlesbrough (H)
TEAMS
Stoke: Simkin, Okagbue (Laird 76), Curl, Roney, Cargill, Lewis, Knowles (Lusakueno 72), Asplin, Waldo, Griffiths, Tezgel (Waite 83).
Unused subs: Parke, Watson.
Wolves: Arinbjornsson, Birtwistle, Hubner, Tipton, Mabete, Lembikisa, Griffiths, Rees (Francis-Burrell 84), Esen (Keto-Diyawa 63), Farmer (Fraser 64), Roberts.
Unused subs: Amos, Ojinnaka.
