THE Burton Albion under 18s suffered their first Youth Alliance defeat of 2018 with a 2-1 loss to York City.
The young Brewers took the lead within the opening 10 minutes when good work from Kyle Clamp and Reece Hutchinson down the right-hand side of the pitch allowed the latter to cut the ball back for Jack Bromfield to turn the ball home.
Luke Tandy forced a good save out of the York goalkeeper with a close-range header, while Ben Hart saw strong appeals for a first-half penalty turned down.
York turned the game around in the second-half. The first was a deflected effort from outside the penalty area which looped over Oliver Fairbrother in the Burton goal and went in off the underside of the crossbar.
York then took the lead in the 82nd minute, when another shot from range skidded along the turf and crept inside the near post. Reece Hutchinson went close with a one-on-one chance late-on but his shot was saved as York held on for their third win in a row.
Prefessional Development Phase Lead coach Sam Rose said:
“We were poor today. It was a difficult game and we never really matched the level of performance from our last 4 games. There was a little bit of quality and we played some good stuff at times but there were large periods where neither side really got a hold of the ball and it was scrappy. After going a goal ahead and in control of the game we missed chances to score a second and that's disappointing.
“I don't think that we deserved to win the game. Credit to Steve Torpey and York City, it was their third win in-a-row and you could see after the game how much the win meant to them.
“The lads are disappointed because it could have been five games unbeaten and three wins on the bounce in the Youth Alliance, but this is just another reminder that we are here to improve and this game showed that we need to continue to improve in certain areas.”
Dan Cooke, captain on the day, said:
“I just don’t think we were good enough on the day. We did not get the ball down well enough and we didn’t really play as well as we could have done.
“(Being captain) is about trying to show my leadership, organising the back three. I think I did alright but everyone could have been much better today. We have put a lot of effort in on the training field, but that did not translate onto the pitch.”
Goalkeeper Fairbrother said:
“I think that we battled, and in the first-half we were on top. We got a goal and were in a good position to win the game but in the second-half, they got on top of us. That’s football, one deflected goal and one goal that we should have defended better have cost us the game.”
The Brewers are back in Youth Alliance action on Saturday 24th February against Lincoln City.