Aston Villa News 24/7Man Utd Reserves were crowned 2009/10 Premier Reserve League National Champions tonight after what sounded like a thrilling game at Old Trafford, but needed a penalty shoot out to do so after coming from behind 3 times. Ben Foster the hero of the shoot out, saving twice and scoring one himself.
I didn’t see it myself, but followed the updates from various sources online, including the OS and Twitter. I’ve put the teams at the bottom and indicated the number of appearances for the first teams in parentheses (zero indicates being named in a first team squad at least once, but not actually playing). 27 year old Ben Foster, besides 4 England caps (most recently against Brazil in November 2009) also has 73 appearance for Watford. Just saying and yes, I know Marshall isn’t without experience, but he hasn’t been touted as a possibility for the World Cup squad either.
Nathan Delfouneso capped an opening 20 minutes of pressure with the first goal, but Diouf pulled the home team back on terms right before the break.
James Collins (the young striker) came on for Nathan Baker at half time with O’Halloran slotting into the centre and Hofbauer to left back.
Delfouneso retook the lead early in the second half and Utd responded immediately by bringing on Obertan in place of Stewart. Again Utd drew level, this time it was Macheda from the spot after Jonathon Hogg brought down Possebon.
Obertan was forced off with 15 minutes left, Will Keane his replacement. Villa pushed on and scored what must have seemed like the winner inside the final 10 minutes, Clark nodding in Alrbighton’s corner at the back stick.
But once again, despite Villa dominating the closing minutes, Utd were again able to get back on terms with Diouf beating Marshall from close range despite the attention of Ciaran Clark. With no extra time, it went to the dreaded penalty shoot out and with misses from Albrighton and Foster saving Delfouneso and Collin’s efforts, it went to the wire, but finished 3-2 to Utd.
Penalty Shoot Out
| Man Utd | Aston Villa | |
| 1 | Macheda – Scored | Bannan – Scored |
| 2 | Possebon – Scored | Albrighton – Missed |
| 3 | Keane – Saved | Weimann – Scored |
| 4 | Foster – Scored | Delfouneso – Saved |
| 5 | Evans – Saved | Collins – Saved |
Teams
| Manchester Utd Reserves | Aston Villa Reserves | |
| (13) Ben Foster | Andy Marshall | |
| (16) Rafael | Matthew Roome | |
| Joe Dudgeon | Nathan Baker | |
| (0) Corry Evans | Ciaran Clark (1) | |
| (5) Ritchie De Laet | Stephen O’Halloran | |
| (0) Oliver Gill | Marc Albrighton (6) | |
| (0) Stewart | Barry Bannan | |
| Rodrigo Possebon | Jonathon Hogg | |
| (6) Mame Biram Diouf | Dominic Hofbauer | |
| Oliver Norwood | Andreas Weimann | |
| (9) Frederico Macheda | Nathan Delfouneso (12) | |
| Scott Wooton | Harry Forrester | |
| Ron-Robert Zieler | David Bevan | |
| Paul Pogba | Isaiah Osbourne | |
| (13) Gabriel Obertan | Daniel Bradley | |
| Will Keane | James Collins |
I think Man Utd will consider themselves reasonably fortunate to come away with the title, especially considering the respective levels of experience. Thanks to @ManUnitedYouth for the updates from the stadium – he was particularly impressed with Delfouneso, Albrighton, Bannan and Weimann, but we are too!!
The future’s bright, the future is claret and blue!
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5 Comments to “Reserves Play-Off Final – Man Utd 3 Aston Villa 3 (3:2 Pens)”
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I managed to catch the last half hour and the MUTV commentators said we were unlucky to lose what was a fantastic game.
Enough said.
i know we like to think that every batch of kids from thje academy are huge prospects, but is it me, or do we have a more promising bunch than usual coming through?
people love to criticise MON over transfers and the scouting network, but i think they’re probably completely unaware of some of the young talent that’s been brought in over the last few years.
we’re not quite in arsenal territory, but we could have some serious money savers/money makers on our hands over the coming several seasons.
It seems we do have a good crop coming through and a few posters have talked about the 4 you mention on and off. Clarke gets mentioned a lot too; he’s highly rated.
The concern I have is that I’m not sure how much MON gets involved.
I know he watches them sometimes and is supposedly interested, but the consensus seems to have been that Albrighton and Bannan won’t make it under him as they’re too small and Weimann ultimately won’t cut it either
I’m not totally convinced about that (Ash is a good example of a skinny kid who he rates) but it’s just what I’ve seen written by people who watch a lot more than me
It doesn’t matter, as between them, even if they’re sold to championship clubs, they’ll have paid all the running costs of the Academy while they’ve been there.
Fonz is a different matter of course.
I’d like to see him thrown in a LOT more, but ho hum, maybe next season
yeah, not sure where these consensuses (consensi?) derive from.
albrighton is the same height as ash. bannan is the same height as shaun maloney and, i’m certainly not drawing comparisons, they’re both the same height as lionel messi!
i think that blows that theory out of the water.
these guys would have played in europa league this year. they will play in it next year. let’s hope they do a better job in the play off round next time.
It is impossible to tell which of these youngsters are going to make it. The Fonz seems to have that poachers instinct that we are craving, but I think O’Neill has done the right thing in introducing him gently. Two much expectation could crush a blossoming talent and only those working with him every day know how strong he is mentally.
As for the rest it would be nice to see two or three making the cut but who knows, some of these lads haven’t even fully developed physically yet and talent wise there are always some late developers that are probably not even getting into the reserves. It’s impossible to predict and down trough the years on a number of occasions we thought we had the real deal coming trough the reserves but it didn’t turn out like that eg. the Moore brothers.