Boy Blues are still learning their Trade
ROTHERHAM CITY UNDER-21s City win 4-2 on penalties 1 1 ONE City team put on a good show last night – and they weren’t in Girona!
Far from sunny Spain, Simon Davies’s Under-21 team impressed in south Yorkshire with a promising display on their Checkatrade Trophy debut.
Trailing heading into injury time, Benjamin Garre scored a last-gasp equaliser to set up a penalty shootout that the young Blues won thanks in part to two Aro Muric saves.
This game, and performance, should please City’s chairman far more than the drab 0-0 the EDS served up against kings of youth football Chelsea as he switches attention from winning youth tournaments to producing first-team players.
Every City starlet that has trained with the first team has come to a similar conclusion – Lukas Nmecha described it when he was 16.
“When you play with the 18s sometimes you’re playing against centre-backs that aren’t as physically strong so you can take a few more touches, but with the likes of Vincent Kompany you know you have to control or pass and make better movements.”
The striker has shot up and bulked up in the 18 months since, and showed in the summer as part of England’s matchwinner in the Under-19 Euros that he can be more than a match for the best defenders his age.
Regardless, leading the line against a 32-year-old centre-back with more than 350 appearances was still unchartered territory and in the opening minutes City struggled with the pace of the game against their Football League opponents.
They may not have given away too many years to their opponents but the gap in experience was telling.
Their League One opponents were strong, direct and hungry to show their manager - who had made 10 changes for the game - that they should be involved in the next league match.
‘They look like men but they’re playing like boys’ was one view of the Blues as Rotherham sensed blood early on, City coach Davies pleading with his team to keep the ball as passes were nervously fired off without thinking, only succeeding in adding to the pressure they were trying to alleviate.
To the team’s credit, though, they quickly learned they would not be constantly under the cosh, and Javairo Dilrosun and Nmecha showed that keeping the ball and running with it could cause the home defence problems – the latter went closer than anyone in the first half when he fired into the side netting.
Muric was still the busier of the goalkeepers, some of the defending was last-ditch and the team are still playing out from the back more than is wise or comfortable.
It was losing possession in their own third led to the deadlock being broken, ex-Blue David Ball being played through to slot home just after the hour mark.
However, the tigerish Matt Smith and Jacob Davenport helped ensure the contest was more even than might have been expected in midfield and City did pose a credible threat up front.
And just as it looked like they were beaten, a last-gasp Benjamin Garre strike set up a penalty shoot-out and Charlie Oliver kept his head to score the decisive penalty.