Young Guns A Game Away From The FA Youth Cup Final?
Mar 20th, 2018 by 'holic
You could be forgiven for not knowing that the U18 class of 2018 were playing the first leg of their FA Youth Cup semi-final this evening. It was something of a surprise that the match was not televised live. Perhaps Blackpool expected to take more in gate money (it was free to season ticket holders, £4 for adults and £2 concessions) than tv income? Perhaps both clubs underestimated the interest in the fixture?
In the end the match was captured in the Twitter feed of @BlackpoolFC and the excellent @jeorgebird of arsenalyouth.wordpress.com fame and is a story of what might have been. As a bit of background to the tie Blackpool had previously beaten three Category One and three Category Three academies to reach this stage, the Arsenal being the fourth Category One scalp they were looking for.
The Arsenal went into the match without goalkeeper Joao Virginia and the prolific Emile Smith-Rowe. Blackpool too were missing their main man, Rowan Roache, called up by the Republic of Ireland’s U19 squad.
The match itself was a slow burner with not a single strike on target until the 26th minute when Fin Sinclair-Smith fired an effort straight at the Gunners schoolboy goalkeeper, Arthur Okonkwo.
That stung the Gunners into a response and the opening goal, Tyreece John-Jules finishing from close range following a corner. Folarin Balogun, and John-Jules again, both hit efforts wide and the young Gunners would pay for their profligacy. Blackpool levelled on the brink of half-time through Dylan Sumner. Kwame Ampadu would have already had his interval team talk prepared but presumably needed to change his message.
As the hour mark approached we had reason to be grateful to our inexperienced young goalkeeper. The Blackpool Twitter feed reported “58′ – Big save from Okonkwo to keep out a header from Dunne. Watkinson is then denied on the rebound.” We again responded, and Xavier Amaechi finished off a counter-attack with aplomb. 1-2 to the Arsenal, and then we were awarded a penalty-kick to seal the first-leg deal. However Craig Thordarson saved the spot-kick and that would prove to be significant.
Ben Jacobson struck with just sixteen minutes remaining to level an intriguing tie for the second time. Sinclair-Smith missed the target twice in the closing stages as the hosts sought an unlikely triumph, but a tight contest was destined to end in a deadlock in which the Arsenal’s two away goals may yet prove important.
The second-leg will be at the Grove on 16th April at 7pm. Hopefully Arsenal Player will show it live for supporters from far away to keep up with the action. This is the premier trophy for developing footballers and should be presented as such by the clubs and/or the FA. We have had some wonderful evenings in the FA Youth Cup down the years and this could be yet another.
Cheers, ‘holics.
51 Responses to “Young Guns A Game Away From The FA Youth Cup Final?”
Drink!
That’s a great call GSD. I’ll join you. ??
Excellent report of what sounds like an excellent performance. Well done young guns.
Cheers H!
I nipped into the pub on my way home earlier and had 20 minutes of peace and a delicious IPA. Drinking can be very good for you indeed… Let’s all have one!
Thanks for the report. I’m keen to get along to the 2nd leg. I completely agree it would be great if it were televised. And that Jeorge Bird does excellent reporting on the youth players.
Cheers Holic !
The younger Arsenal teams are sounding ever more like the Tory front bench.
We will hope the double barrelled at least let Blackpool have both barrels in the second leg.
It’s not mentioned in the report but did Blackpool equalise with a Towering header ? ?
The younger Arsenal teams are sounding ever more like the Tory front bench.
It’s the first team who are like that.
“Oh God it’s that c***!”
“Oh f*** me, not this c***”
“This useless tw@ now, what’s he going to do? As usual… f*** it up!”
It’s nearly midnight but the kidz might still be up.
😉
Would Tyreece John-Jules be the son of Red Dwarf’s Cat? I do hope so. 🙂
No, no he wouldn’t. Cousins, I think.
Thanks for the report. Nice to see
the young lads doing well.
In the shifting sands of a two leg
tie let’s hope we rock Blackpool.
Thanks for featuring this Guvna, Clive and I follow with relish and an old Gooner friend of mine watches them when he can. If I’m free I will try to get to the Grove on 16 April. Seems a long time to wait but hopefully Smith- Rowe is on the mend and Reiss Nelson is eligible to play as well if we need him.
COYG
GSD
I think you may be right!
It’s a very good maxim .
But only drink when you’re thirsty! ?
Quite possibly Chris but does that also make him the son of the Red Dwarf’s cat’s alter ego Duane Dibley aka Wilfred Zaha? As someone pointed out on here Duane Dibley was playing for Palace and the resemblance is clear. Probably Cynic.
Idle question: (as most of my questions seem to be)
If Putin is going to use the World Cup like Hitler, what is Trump going to use the Westminster dog show for?
Not to much interest in the young guns judging by the paltry contributions to H’s post in the Bar so far,
For those few that do,
Young Reiss Nelson scored twice for England under 19’s this evening,one of them an absolute cracker apparently, as they beat Hungary 4 – 1 in Euro Qualifier.
Eddie and Joe Wilock also played .
I hope young Nelson is receiving the right advice re his new contract offer.
He is still only 17 and obviously has a lot to offer.
Don’t want him throwing it away with the impatience of youth.
TTG,
I posted an update ion under 23’s title charge at 69 in previous drinks.
To show off his new apricot poodle cut, bt8? Pom poms all over?
It’s always good to hear about our youngsters doing well, Clive. Just difficult to get close to the action with no coverage in any media in NZ, except what I read here of course.
I agree with your Nelson concerns. The lad needs a mentor in the club (which he may well have) with more influence than his personal management who may be blinded by dollar signs. And it would definitely help to give him more first XI game time.
Cricket is going spiffingly well.
They seemed very keen on taking NZ’s record lowest test score … but ended up doubling it. 🙁
Looked like a rugby score.
I thought England were supposed to be good at cricket?
Clive
Thanks for your update. Two of the oldest Gooner’s are the most interested in the young ones coming through ! I worry that we will be able to hold onto Nelson and would like to see him and Nketiah getting time in the League before the end of the season as we must prioritise Europe.
I’m sure Ned has stats on the conjunction of Youth Cup wins with success for the first team
It does seem a bit of a pity that AW hasn’t used the fact that we are out of the running for top four places to give some of the more outstanding academy players a few premiership appearances.
This would also have been a good kick up the jacksie to one or two of our first team squad that have been coasting, to put it mildly.
This would also have been a good kick up the jacksie to one or two of our first team squad
Not if he put them back in the team for the games that matter it wouldn’t. Anyway our current first team would only fill their extra free time with Instagram posts about shoes, clothes or something equally thrilling.
Bring in the semi-pro coal miners then. They NEVER talk about clothes or shoes. Boots and overalls, maybe.
course none of us fill our time
posting nonsense at all ever.
Anyway, must go, just popping
up the shops
“Hey guys, I’m not in the team today but look at this photo I’ve taken of me beating our opponents on FIFA! GO GUNNERS!”
“PS – Like my cool slippers?”
LOL Cynic !!!!
????
Lotta ❤️??? for
the cool slippers ?
only 1 “Like” all day for your
slippers Cynic. You’ll never be
a PL player with that following.
In other news, Jack’s injured.
Just wait until Trev comes around with his slipper puns.
For now we just might say the situation is bound to get a bit slipperier.
No chance, bt8 –
I tried telling my wife my slipper puns but she wasn’t impressed..
Told me to put a sock in it … ?
For what it’s worth, I have my own personal French slipper designer –
Phillipe Phillope ?
Elegant stuff Trev. Just as well there are no anti-pun thugs around to clog you. ?
Don’t want anyone making fun of Trev’s puns. There are too many moccasins this bar for my liking .
I hear the ground is flooded. It’s a case of all hands to the pump
I think that England selection is utterly bizarre. The future is four full-backs three of whom play or used to play for the Marsh- Dwellers. Trippier in front of a back three.
Utterly weird. Chris could have picked this team ????
This looked like the worst England side in ages. I usually don’t bother watching them anyway.
They are playing excellently. I’m not bored by England for the first time in years.
Welbz coming on.
Watch the goals flow in…
The worst England side I can remember, GSD, but the Dutch are even worse. Did people have to pay money to watch?
Chris is right the Dutch are pathetic
This selection by Southgate was RagTag and Bobtail with players out of position . They would be murdered by one of the better sided
England deserve recognition for not boring GSD.
Even by his own high standards
that was stupid from Southgate,
he should be up on the carpet
for it. What a mule.
Heh. The slipper puns continue!
Didn’t see it. I only watch England if there’s an Arsenal interest.
Football can have a major impact on mental health
Lack of it even more so
*gg(Blur) na na na na hey….oh no…la la la blob…shhhh…blob and b
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUejkJanuA0
TTG@21:
We last won the Youth Cup in 2008-09. Of the winning starting XI only Jack Wilshere and Francis Coquelin went onto establish themselves as 1st team players. In addition to those two, only two more, Craig Eastmond and Emmanuel Frimpong, made 10 or more 1st team appearances for Arsenal. Two of them never appeared for the 1st team (five if you include those on the bench), and another three managed one 1st team appearance. Setting aside Jack and Coquelin, the rest of the that winning team have collectively played in only 14 Premiership matches. Lack of talent or opportunities?
Player (Current club): Arsenal 1st team games — Career Premier League Games (of which for Arsenal)
James Shea (Luton Town): 0 — 0 (0)
Craig Eastmond (Sutton Utd): 10 — 4 (4)
Thomas Cruise (Out of game): 1 — 0 (0)
Kyle Bartley (Swansea City): 1 — 19 (0)
Emmanuel Frimpong (Ermis Aradippou): 16 — 17 (6)
Luke Ayling (Leeds United): 0 — 0 (0)
Henri Lansbury (Aston Villa): 8 — 3 (3)
Francis Coquelin (Valencia): 160 — 105 (105)
Gilles Sunu (SCG Angers): 2 — 0 (0)
Jack Wilshere (Arsenal): 191 — 163 (122)
Jay Emmanuel-Thomas (QPR): 6 —1 (1)
Rhys Murphy (Gillingham): 0 — 0 (0)
Charlie Mann (Out of the game since 2011): 0 — 0 (0)
Sanchez Watt (Unattached): 3 — 0 (0)
Conor Henderson (OFK Pirin Blagoevgrad): 1 — 0 (0)
Cedric Evina (Crawley Town): 0 — 0 (0)
@43. Fiendish.
@44. Monkishly detailed research.
I’m not sure any of your dusty old books will tell you where Ermis Aradippou is located though. 🙂
Actually, Google seems to say that Ermis Aradippou is located on the outskirts of the city of Larnaca which sounds perilously close to the lost continent of Atlantis. Has Frimpong taken up underwater archaeology in his spare time, I wonder?
#everybodywantstoknowwhatfrimpongdoesinhissparetime
There’s a little song that
My grandma sang to me,
She sang it as she tucked me in
When I was ninety-three….
Oh, Frimpong Frimpong Frimpong Frimpong
Frimpong tiddle eye po
Frimpong tiddle eye po
Frimpong tiddle eye po …….
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Trev having the last word again. I mean, what could you say after that (apart from >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>)?