U18s Match Report: Bradford City 1 – 3 Burton Albion – Saturday 13th February 2016

Despite the strong start to the year, we faced our second consecutive defeat on Saturday when we welcomed Burton Albion to Leeds Trinity University for a rare afternoon kick off. A good performance was overshadowed by conceding two second half goals which saw the away side leave with all three points.

Chandler Hallwood made a save to deny Burton in the opening minute however, they opened the scoring five minutes later. Hallwood came out to meet the ball but after failing to make contact, it dribbled into the back of the net.

Burton’s short corner in the 20th minute produced a long range shot that deflected behind for another corner that was caught by Hallwood. Our goalkeeper also pulled off a fantastic save to tip Burton’s 24th minute strike behind for their third corner of the game.   Xander McBurnie did well to intercept the ball on the halfway line and find Niah Payne who raced towards goal. Ellis Hudson tried to take the ball into the box but he was tackled and we allowed Burton to attack from the regain. Their forward raced to beat our defenders to the box but the ball was well blocked by Hallwood’s feet.

We found an equaliser on 35 minutes. Good link up play from Hudson and Tom Windle set up Xander McBurnie, who’s effort beat the goalkeeper at his near post.
Our goal gave us a spring in our step, with Akeel Francis nearly making it 2-1 minutes later. Sumaili Cissa’s long ball found Francis in the box, who carried the ball around the goalkeeper only to see his shot headed off the line.Good link up play between Hudson and McBurnie saw Hudson cross to our Finnish scholar, Ville Moilanen, but the Burton goalkeeper was first to the ball. His clearance fell to McBurnie who’s long cross found Niah Payne but his effort was again well saved.

Our first effort of the second half saw Francis’ header go over the bar however, Burton soon applied pressure in the 70th minute with two consecutive corners. Despite our defence coping with them well, they went 2-1 up minutes later through open play. Their forward chased a long ball into the box and despite Hallwood pushing the ball away with his feet, the player had the time and space to strike the rebound into the net. The goal didn’t deter us from playing, we continued the positive play with Cissa nearly scoring through a toe-poke on 65 minutes. The end-to-end game saw Hallwood’s feet again deny Burton in 75 minute but they found a third goal with less than five minutes to go to make it 3-1.

It was a disappointing end but we can take positives from our performance. Next week, we travel to Mansfield Town – 12.00pm k.o at Clipstone FC (grass pitch), The Worksop Van Hire Stadium, Clipstone, Mansfield, Nottinghamshire NG21 9DP