Wolves 3 (Bradbury pen 35, Harper 53, Salmon 57) Leeds United 1 (Gray 68)
Richard Walker’s under-18s returned to winning ways at Compton with a resolute and ruthless display against Leeds United on Saturday afternoon.
Wolves had the first chance of the game as Fabian Reynolds cut in from the right but saw his shot blocked by a Leeds defender.
Afterwards, it would be the visitors who would dominate a large portion of the first half, with Lewys Benjamin forced into two fine saves, firstly from a Max McFadden volley after an initial free-kick was well defended.
After 28 minutes, a neat move on Leeds’ left-hand side between Sam Chambers, Harry Gray and Joe Billett resulted in a golden chance as a cross from the latter was met by Rhys Chadwick who headed over from close range.
A free-kick moments later saw Benjamin forced into another solid save as McFadden looked to bend his effort across goal.
Those missed chances would prove costly, as Luke Rawlings played in Reynolds before he was adjudged to have been nudged from behind by referee Joshua Brookland, leaving Makenzie Bradbury with the task of slotting his penalty past Rory Mahady into the bottom-left corner.
Reynolds was the main outlet for Wolves in the first half, and he would have another chance before the break beaten away by Mahady.
Leeds again missed a golden chance moments before the whistle as Chambers played a teasing ball across to Gray, but his shot was scuffed wide of the mark.
Half-time | Wolves 1-0 Leeds United
Wolves would assert their own dominance early on in the second half with Fraser Harper at the heartbeat of play.
The midfielder – fresh from signing his first professional contract – would double the advantage after a neat lay-off from Testimony Igbinoghene, before cutting in from the left and his deflected strike found the bottom right-hand corner.
He would then turn provider just four minutes later as he retrieved the ball in the middle of the park before sending Fabian Salmon through to slot home after going one-on-one with Mahady.
Despite the deficit, Leeds continued to probe for a route back into the game and were handed a lifeline on 68 minutes as Chambers was brought down inside the area, before Gray dispatched his own spot kick despite Benjamin diving the same way.
The away side would then create a number of half-chances in the remainder of proceedings, with the most notable being an 89th minute attempt by Lewis Pirie that was never troubling the Wolves keeper.
The Old Gold would then stand firm for the lengthy amount of stoppage time, with the result moving the side up to fourth in the U18 Premier League, recording a third league success of the campaign going into the October international break.
Full-time | Wolves 3-1 Leeds United
NEXT FIVE
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Wolves | Benjamin, Okoduwa (Clarke 46), Diomande, Voice, Igbinoghene, Reynolds (Patterson 81), Bradbury, Harper (Ayman 71), Rawlings, Edozie (Plank 62), Salmon.
Subs not used | C. McLeod.
Leeds | Mahady, Cresswell, Lopata-White, Richards, Billett, Chadwick-Chaplain (Wilson 59), Toulson, Gray, McFadden (Vincent 82), Chambers (McDonald 69), Pirie.
Subs not used | Grainger, Hamilton.
Report by Benedict Ferraby
