twenty-one
Manchester United under-18s traveled to Warren Joyce’s Nottingham Forest on Saturday morning for a rematch of last season’s FA Youth Cup final.
There were a number of dangerous early crosses from United’s right-hand side, but Forest’s centre-backs were decided with their clearances.
On the stroke of 10 minutes, Elyh Harrison was caught on the ball trying to play from behind, allowing Benjamin Perry to get past the keeper and giving Forest the lead.
Later in the half, Ethan Williams got past his defender with a few tricks and shot on target, but the keeper was able to hold on.
Forest almost doubled their lead just before the break, but Harrison made a fantastic save.
Two minutes into the second half, Jaydan Kamason tried to get the ball out for a goal kick, but Danny Anijsko stepped in to steal and was brought down by the young defender to earn a penalty. Forest captain Kyle McAdam stepped forward and positioned himself in the top left corner.
In the 61st minute, Forest charged through midfield before a perfect inch pass slid to Anijsko to delicately deflect Harrison to make it 3-0.
A minute later, a long overhead ball for Conor Brown to run allowed the Forest striker to knock the ball past Harrison before being brought off by the United goalkeeper who was lucky to escape with only a yellow card as judged by the referee. having been too far from the goal.
Forest added a fourth in the 78th for another mistake playing from behind. Harrison fed a loose pass to James Nolan which allowed Forest to intercept and Kristian Clarke to pass to Harrison.
United had a chance to console themselves late in stoppage time when Nolan was caught on top of his boot while shooting inside the box to earn a penalty.
Nolan chose to shoot himself, but United’s bad day took a turn for the worse when the keeper parried his shot into the bottom left corner.
The whistle was blown seconds later to end the match 4–0 and hand United their first league defeat since mid-September, leaving them in third place.
United: Harrison, Kamason, Munro (Mantato 57), Jackson, Kingdon, Nolan, Berry, Ibragimov (Bailey 88), Scanlon, Williams, Musa
Unused Substitutes: Myles, Armer
