Goals from Cole Brannigan and TJ Carroll guided Aston Villa under 18s back to winning ways as they completed a comfortable win over Fulham at Motspur Park yesterday afternoon.
Jimmy Shan’s side were on the front foot from the outset with Brannigan forcing an early save from Dino Kaiser before Alfie Lynksey aimed an overhead wide of the net from the rebound. The in-form Brannigan opened the scoring five minutes later, following up after Teddie Bloomfield had seen an effort saved, to give the visitors the lead with his eleventh goal in eighteen appearances.
Aiden Evans spurned a good opportunity to equalise when he steered a Luca Picotto’s ball wide of the target, before the bright Brodie Dair burst in from the left flank and curled a clever effort against the woodwork. But Villa had the better of the chances in the second half with the Northern Irish under-19 international almost scoring from a smart free-kick routine with his shot creeping just wide of goal.
Substitute Junior Wilson almost produced one of the individual goals of the season when his improvised backheel from a corner beat Kaiser but flew just over. The visitors were disciplined in defence and goalkeeper Sam Proctor made just a single save from substitute Kyle Grant, beating away the midfielder’s fierce drive.
The young Villains made sure of all three points when Leon Routh was tripped in the area and Carroll calmly sent Kaiser the wrong way with the subsequent spot-kick. Tom Wingate and Aidan Evans came close to conjuring up a goal for the hosts in a frantic finale, but Villa might easily having added a third had Logan Cooke not produced a peach of a goal-saving challenge after Markie Meade had skipped around Kaiser.
Ali Melloul’s men are back in action on Wednesday afternoon at Reading.
FULHAM UNDER 18s (4-2-3-1): Kaiser; Walters, Picotto, Cooke, Schutter; Chingwaro, Slade (Khan 85); Zepa (Wingate 60), Evans, Ali-Wahid; Dair (Grant 61). Subs (not used): Mayer, Hall.
BOOKED: Chingwaro.
ASTON VILLA UNDER 18s: Proctor, Burgess, Carroll, Routh, Bloomfield; Jenner, Lynskey (Lott 63); Quinn, McWilliams (Wilson 45′), Brannigan (Moreland 85); Mulley (Meade 77). Sub (not used): Asemota.
BOOKED: Burgess.
GOALS: Brannigan (9), Carroll (pen 83).
REFEREE: Chris Poole.
