Town’s U19s victorious in the EFL Youth Alliance Cup
- Carlisle Untied 2-3 Huddersfield Town U19s
- Goals from Denim Nnamudi, Hazeem Bakre and Danny Isaac
- Comments from forward Danny Isaac
A close game went in Town’s favour on Tuesday afternoon as our Under-19s came home with all three points against Carlisle United in the EFL Youth Alliance Cup.
Led by Oran Thompson and Michael Tonge, the Young Terriers secured all three points in Tuesday afternoon’s EFL Youth Alliance Cup fixture against Carlisle United with goals from trialist Denim Nnamudi, Hazeem Bakre and new scholar Danny Isaac.
Within the opening three minutes, forward Aaron Ojungu had had the first chance of the game, however his curling shot from the edge of the box went straight to the goalkeeper.
Bakre received the ball from a throw in from Omari Mrisho, the forward turned infield and took his shot, unfortunately this went well wide.
After a great move down the right saw Nnumadi find Mrisho’s run into space, he charged into the box but the ‘keeper saved his eventual shot from a narrow angle.
Town’s first goal came in the 19th minute as Dan Vost intercepted a pass from the Carlisle centre back and set Isaac up in the penalty area, however, he unselfishly squared the ball to Nnamudi who just beat the defender on the line and put the ball in the back of the net.
This was followed by our second goal in the 25th minute after a nice one-two between Nnamudi and Ojungu to set the latter away down the left. Bakre came infield off the right flank and received the pass on the edge of the box, he took one touch and set the ball before driving it brilliantly across the goalkeeper and into the bottom corner.
Ten minutes later the hosts got a goal back after a clinical counter-attack.
Our Young Terriers scored their third goal just before the break as Bakre beats a man to come infield as he entered the Carlisle half and drove across the pitch to pass to Nnamudi – he waited for Ojungu to overlap and played the ball to him. Ojungu’s low cross into the area found Bakre and although his initial shot was saved, Isaac was on hand to nod home the rebound.
The first minute of the second half saw the final goal of the game as Carlisle edged closer to Town once more. Anthony Gregory immediately has to clear the ball off the line in order to recover his poor pass back to Francis Hurl, Alexander Asaba then tripped the Carlisle forward with a sliding tackle and a penalty was awarded. The penalty was converted well.
Despite the close start to the second half, Town secured their first win in the EFL Youth Alliance Cup.
New scholar Danny Isaac spoke to us about settling in at Town.
“So far, I’m really enjoying my time here. The boys have been really friendly, and the coaches and staff have really helped me settle in, so I am loving the experience.
“Lee Mellor (Head of Academy Recruitment) and Adam Powell (Head of Academy Education and Player Care) in particular have really helped me find my feet – they have helped me set up my studies as well as getting me on track with my football.”
Commenting on the goals he has scored already, Isaac said:
“It’s always good to come into a new Club and get on the scoresheet really fast and get off to a good start, it just puts you in good shape going forward.
“I’m really happy to already be scoring and I hope there are plenty more goals with my name on coming this season.”
Finally, the 17-year-old forward discussed what he thought of the EFL Youth Alliance Cup game on Tuesday:
“It was a good game, we obviously won 2-3 and I was really happy to contribute to that with a goal and an assist.
“I thought the team performance was really positive and we played really well – I hope the rest of the season is like this now.”
Town’s team (3-4-3)
Francis Hurl; Aleaxander Asaba, Anthony Gregory, Freddie Fletcher; Omari Mrisho, Daniel Vost, Luke Schofield (Donell Garrick, 60’), Aaron Ojungu; Hazeem Bakre, Danny Isaac (Milkyas Mebrahtu, 60’), Denim Nnamudi (Gabriano Shelton, 60’)
Town goals
Denim Nnamudi (19’), Hazeem Bakre (25’), Danny Isaac (43’)
