UNDER-18S MATCH REPORT: UNITED 3 NEWCASTLE 0
Manchester United's Under-18s returned to our free-scoring ways with a comfortable victory over Newcastle United at the Aon Training Complex on Saturday afternoon.
Three-nil to the good at the break, the Reds looked all set to add to the total after the interval, but an exceptional goalkeeping display from Magpies keeper Daniel Langley saved his side from what could have been a heavy defeat.
This was the second consecutive Saturday that Newcastle had travelled south to Manchester. Last weekend, the teams met in the Under-18 Premier League Cup, with United running out 1-0 winners thanks to Anthony Elanga’s goal, while this game saw the lads back in league action.
It was a cloudy and quite chilly morning but that didn’t prevent a good numbers of devotees from taking in the game before moving on to Old Trafford for the evening kick-off against the senior Magpies.
Last week we had to wait until 20 minutes from the end before the deadlock was broken, but eight days on and it was a completely different story. United took the game to the visitors and, in the 13th minute, Ethan Galbraith found the net to give the Reds a flying start.
The Magpies were certainly being put under pressure from the earliest moments of this match and it really came as no surprise when Aliou Traore added a second goal just after the half-hour mark.
The visitors’ goalkeeper, Langley, and the defence in front of him, was being kept busy and Newcastle’s plight was soon to get worse, for within two minutes, Galbraith had fired home his second of the game and United were looking comfortable with a three-goal cushion.
D’Mani Mellor and Dion McGhee replaced Mason Greenwood and Ethan Laird at half-time, following their UEFA Youth League exertions in midweek, but that did nothing to alter the flow of the game.
United continued to dominate possession and excursions into the Newcastle penalty area were just as regular as in the first half. The Reds could have easily doubled our output, but for Langley’s terrific goalkeeping that saw him some excellent saves.
Teden Mengi, Di’Shon Bernard and Charlie McCann were three United players who looked certain to add their names to the scoresheet and they would have done but for Langley’s heroics.
MATCH DETAILS
MANCHESTER UNITED UNDER-18S 3 (Galbraith 13, 33, Traore 31)
NEWCASTLE UNITED UNDER-18S 0
United: Thompson; Laird (McGhee 46), Mengi, Bernard, B. Williams; Levitt, Traore, Galbraith; Puigmal, Greenwood (Mellor 46), Elanga (McCann 62).
Substitutes not used: Al-Chelabi, Bejger
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