City Under-17s beaten by Stoke to end Premier League Cup hopes | OneFootball

City’s hopes of defending the Under-17 Premier League Cup were ended with a 3-1 defeat to Stoke City at the City Football Academy.

Needing a victory to have any chance of reaching the quarter-finals, we got off to the perfect start when Alfie Harrison fired us into an early lead.

But the Potters hit back with two goals in a minute in the first half from Jake Griffin and Nathan Lowe to leave us trailing at the break.

City went close to pulling the game back with Michael Okele striking the woodwork but Lowe added a second for the visitors.

WHAT HAPPENED

After beating Blackburn Rovers Under-17s 6-0 in the previous game following a narrow 4-3 defeat to Manchester United in the opening group match, reaching the last eight remained a possibility.

And City started strongly, going close inside five minutes when Heskey seized on an underhit backpass, taking it around the keeper before flashing an effort across goal.

Emilio Lawrence then forced the first save of the game with a driven effort from the edge of the box and Harrison dragged an effort just off-target after a neat work from Michael Okeke.

A deserved breakthrough finally came in the 17th minute with a well-worked work move started in the backline by Jacob Wright who won a 50-50 challenge before casually spraying a long pass into the path of Lawrence. The winger picked out Harrison at the backpost and the midfielder, who scored a hat-trick against Blackburn earlier in the competition, finished neatly.

But with City seemingly in control, the game turned on its head when Stoke struck twice in the space of 60 seconds.

Centre-back Griffin headed the Potters level when he rose the highest from a deep corner before Nathan Lowe fired the visitors ahead. City keeper George Murray-Jones made two smart saves from close range before Lowe finally swept home at the third attempt.

The quick double rocked City and Lowe went close to a second before we re-established control of the game with Ashton Muir going close to an equaliser following a driving run from Okeke.

Ben Wilkinson made a double change at half-time with the introduction of Isaiah Dada-Mascoll and Joel Ndala but chances were hard to come by.

Lowe was a constant threat on the break, and he forced another good save from Murray-Jones before he beat the City keeper after racing clear again.

City kept pushing and came close to puling a goal back when Okeke found space in the box but his low shot smacked against the foot of the post and Stoke saw out the victory.

HOW WE LINED UP

George Murray-Jones started behind a central defensive pairing of Lakyle Samuel and Jacob Wright with Ezra Carrington and Seb Naylor either side.

In a midfield three, Jake Griffin sat in front of the back with Michael Okeke and Alfie Harrison in more advanced roles.

Jaden Heskey led the frontline with support from Emilio Lawrence on the right and Ashton Muir on the left with the latter switching flanks in the second half when Joel Ndala came on.

Manchester City Under-17s

Starting XI: Murray-Jones, Carrington, Wright, Samuel (Dada-Mascoll 46), Naylor (Oboavwoduo 78), Whittingham, Lawrence (Ndala 46), Okeke, Heskey, Harrison, Muir (Alfa-Ruprecht 79).

Subs: Wint.

Stoke City Under-17s

Starting XI: Houston, Challinor, Asplin-Rowley, Smith, Griffin, Bickerton, Maskell, Sidibe, Lowe, Watson (Agina 25), Hayder (Togo 75).

Subs: Brammer, Rattray, Gardner.

WHAT IT MEANS

Unfortunately, it means the defence of our trophy ends at the group stage ends with only the top side plus the best runner-up from seven groups progressing to the quarter-finals.

UP NEXT

Our Under-18 side are back in action on Saturday with a top-of-the-table clash away to Sunderland.

The Black Cats are top of Premier League North with 19 points from eight games but City can overtake them with a win and you can watch the game live on CITY+ & Recast.