Wolves 1 (Plank 40) Tokyo Verdy 0
Wolves under-17s picked up their first three points in South Korea with victory over Japanese side Tokyo Verdy.
Dom Plank scored the only goal of the game shortly into the second period, before goalkeeper George Hardy saved a late penalty to preserve the points in dramatic fashion.
Richard Walker made four changes to the side that drew 0-0 with Suwon Samsung, with Makenzie Bradbury skippering the Old Gold in the absence of the suspended Hayden Carson.
Wolves had a good opening just 15 minutes into the game, as Josh Gidaree got on the end of Bradbury’s corner, but the defender could only divert over the top.
Minkyu Ji then shot wide from the edge, before Bradbury fired over the crossbar in a half with few clear-cut chances.
Half-time | Wolves 0-0 Tokyo Verdy
It took just five minutes for Wolves to take the lead in the second half. After doing well to win the ball back, Plank was fed in behind by Fabian Salmon, and the winger did the rest as he fired past Ryusei Yamazaki and into the net.
It was so nearly two shortly after as Plank turned provider to Salmon with an inch-perfect ball over the top, before Salmon got there ahead of the keeper and was denied by a last-ditch block with the ball heading towards goal.
Tokyo were then awarded a route back into the game as the referee deemed Ji to handle in the wall from a free-kick and pointed to the spot. Hiroki Chiba stepped up from 12 yards, but Hardy guessed right and got down low to his right to save.
Walker’s side were made to work for the points and had to dig in, although they had the better chances late on through Salmon’s header and Bradbury’s effort over the top following a superb run from Alfie White.
Despite the narrow advantage, Wolves held on and secured all three points – their first win of the tournament to move them onto five points from four matches.
Full-time | Wolves 1-0 Tokyo Verdy
NEXT UP
Wolves are back in action on Friday as they face Bupyeong in the final Group B fixture.
Supporters can watch the game live on the K League Youth YouTube channel HERE
TEAMS
Wolves | Hardy, Okoduwa, Clarke, Gidaree, Ji (Nyakudya 70+3), Bradbury, Salmon, Edozie (Ayman 64), Plank, White, Rawlings.
Subs not used | Kibrya, McLeod.
Tokyo Verdy | Yamazaki, Watanabe, Nakamura, Ito, Sakamaki, Kobayashi, Masudate, Sugiyama, Chiba, Teramura, Yamada.
Subs | Kojima, Namikawa, Taguchi, Kinoshita, Chiba, Tsuchiya, Aihara.
