Owen Farmer struck a 24-minute hat-trick as Wolves under-18s drew 3-3 at Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League Cup, with the hosts mounting an impressive comeback from 3-0 down at half-time.
Assistant coach James McPike took charge of the side while head coach Steve Davis was in the dugout at Stamford Bridge, managing the first team away to Chelsea in the Premier League.
Wolves started the game strongly and were compact and organised in the early stages of proceedings at Hotspur Way. A long ball forward was latched onto by Conor McLeod who released Josh Esen out wide before his cross was competed inside the area by Farmer who got there ahead of Luca Gunter to head home.
The same man then made a run to the corner of the six-yard box to create the opening for his second. After the ball had popped up invitingly, Farmer struck a fine volley across goal with his left boot, as his effort nestled into the top left corner.
The visitors were awarded a penalty when Farmer was brought down inside the area by Gunter after nipping in there ahead of the goalkeeper. The striker stepped up and duly converted to complete his treble with only 34 minutes on the clock.
Despite it not being the prettiest of performances, Wolves were three to the good at the break and were effective in their play, while nullifying their opponents at every opportunity.
Half-time | Tottenham 0-3 Wolves
Spurs had to up their game if they were going to claw anything back from the tie, and they came out with more zip and pace about them.
That prompted McPike to tweak the shape to put a dent in the momentum which helped weather the storm slightly and created opportunities on the break to add a fourth. Farmer was extremely unfortunate to hit both posts to completely close the game out.
However, Spurs pulled one back through Mikey Moore and that ignited more fire in the belly to keep plugging away.
Some creative pieces of play down the sides of Wolves were pivotal in Tottenham scoring twice to find a way of taking a point from the game.
It was substitute Will Lankshear who provided the goods. First, grabbing another one back with 11 minutes left to play, before striking deep into stoppage time to equalise at the death.
Full-time | Tottenham 3-3 Wolves
Next Five
- 15/10 Middlesbrough (H)
- 29/10 Liverpool (H)
- 12/11 Leeds United (A)
- 19/11 Nottingham Forest (H)
- 26/11 Newcastle United (A)
REACTION
Reflecting on the game, McPike said: “It’s really hard on the Saturday afternoon to park the game and the emotion, as it felt like we’d lost the game.
“However, from a development point of view, we got four under-16s on the pitch, were bringing first years on and second years off to manage them.
“Owen Farmer also got a hat-trick so if you look at the bigger picture, it’s a successful afternoon but in the moment it wasn’t.
“Their greatest learning will come from their biggest suffering and their biggest adversities. The players will take so much more from Saturday’s game having been through it as an experience, rather than if they saw it out at 3-0.”
On Owen Farmer’s display
“He works his socks off in the week, does extra work and he’ll even pull the analyst on a Friday afternoon for some clips about hold-up play.
“After the session on Friday, he’ll want me to hit some balls into him to work on some hold-up play. Low and behold, on a Saturday his hold-up is really good.
“He scored a header, a left-foot finish and a right-foot finish – the perfect hat-trick. It’s a credit to his work rate and his work ethic.
“He needs to continue with those standards, not be comfortable and keep pushing the boundary of what he’s capable of.”
On leading the under-18s this week
“I have a fantastic relationship and mentor with Steve (Davis). It’s not a case of changing everything – it’s trying to add a little bit of my spin to an already strong programme.
“It’s one of my goals, to lead an age group in the professional development phase. To get an opportunity to do that is great and it’s putting into practice all the little lessons I’ve learnt along the way. I’m really enjoying the challenge and the opportunity.”
TEAMS
Tottenham Hotspur | Gunter, McKnight, Linton, Andiyapan, Chaplin, Abbott, Bloxham (Owen 70), Moore, Williams, Ajayi (Lankshear 70), Irow (Bryan-Waugh 45)
Unused subs | King, Akhamrich.
Wolves | Storer, Shahar, Mabete, Francis-Burrell (Scicluna 84), Voice (Reynolds 76), Kaleta (Barnett 75), Esen (Plank 90+4), Harper, Farmer, McLeod, Edozie (Diomande 67).
