Report

It was good to get this second Under 16 game played and it was good to welcome back into the group some more players who had not played for the city for sometime.

Under the floodlights at the Dell, with the playing surface as good as I had ever seen it, Wolverhampton unfortunately made the worst possible start going behind after just two minutes.

We never got started. We were hesitant and left a player unmarked in our area for him to score easily. Dudley & Brierley Hill have too many good players to allow this to happen, and they were bound to score if we were not going to defend against them.

Going 0-1 down so early did give us a ‘wake up call’ though and we did then start to compete. Jordan Shippey had our first shot on target but his well struck shot from the angle of the penalty area was saved at the near post.

After 10 minutes we got back on level terms. Jordan Uppal did superbly at the far post and showed great composure to lay the ball back to CHARLIE ARNOLD on the edge of the penalty area. Charlie still had plenty to do to score but he did really well to create the space to curl an unstoppable shot into the far corner of the net to make it 1-1. A typical, excellent effort from Charlie!

Adam Thompson had a shot that went wide a little later, but Dudley & Brierley Hill went 2-1 up when a forward ran through the middle of our defence to score with a side footed shot placed wide of Josh Moreton’s reach.

HALF TIME: WOLVERHAMPTON 1 DUDLEY & BRIERLEY HILL 2

We shuffled the team around a little at half time, and the move of Akeem McKetty Salmon to centre back really made the defence look more comfortable and he produced an outstanding 2^nd half performance. He tackled tenaciously, intercepted brilliantly and was very, very quick.

But, we conceded again after just two minutes. From the penalty spot after Tashan Brown was adjudged to have fouled when winning the ball off an opposition forward. From this point on though we were rarely threatened at the back and we mad e a great effort to get back into the game.

An excellent win of the ball by Dan Dams gave him possession of the ball in the right back position and he quickly moved the ball on to team captain, Charlie Arnold in the midfield. Charlie looked up and played a through ball that sent Jordan Shippey clear. Jordan from some distance out decided to take an early shot, but although it beat the keeper it also went wide of the far post.

Ollie Bragg did hit a powerful direct free kick that cannoned off our crossbar, but Charlie Arnold did similar when from open play he saw his shot hit the post. From the rebound Jordan Shippey played a driven cross across the 6 yard box where Jordan Uppal would have scored had it not been for the keeper doing well to keep it out.

With about 10 minutes remaining ADAM THOMPSON gave us a chance when he scored with a confident shot wide of the goalkeeper, to make it 2-3.

The players worked hard to get the equaliser and Charlie Arnold again saw a driven shot well saved, but we just could not get the goal we wanted.

A very good hard working performance, and a very impressive performance from Akeem at centre back!