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Manchester United youths were defeated by an Celtic Under 19 team at the Barrowfield Training Ground yesterday afternoon. The conditions can only be described as cold and muddy, although at least the rain held off! Celtic lined up in their traditional green hoops, while United wore red shirts and black shorts.
The United team contained no surprises and lined up:
Amos, McCormack, Cleverley, Chester, Cathcart, Drinkwater, Eikrem, Hewson, Brandy, Fagan and Welbeck. Jimmy Derbyshire and Antonio Bryan were the only subs.
Galbraith, Zieler, Evans and Eckersley all travelled with the squad, but there was no sign of Freddy Adu.
The game was fairly even for the first fifteen minutes, although it was clear that Celtic were the more experienced team, fielding players 2/3 years older than some of our lads. After 20 minutes, Celtic went ahead after some poor defending down our left, Danny Welbeck failed to track back and from the ensuing cross, Celtic took the lead with a deflected shot that gave Amos no chance. Both Eikrem and Welbeck offered very little in the first period, which not only put pressure on our two fullback's, but also allowed Celtic to dictate the midfield. After 37 minutes they scored a second. Almost immediately Fagan pulled a goal back for United after a good cross from Welbeck, but it was ruled offside. Two minutes later Welbeck scored with a sweet shot from outside the box as United came more into the game in the last ten minutes of the first half.
Half-time: Celtic 2 United 1
United made two changes at the break, Derbyshire replaced McCormack and Bryan replaced Fagan. Anton went on the left wing and Welbeck joined Brandy up front.
Three minutes into the second half and Celtic scored a third after good work down their right (they got most of their joy from this part of the pitch). On 64minutes, Celtic scored a fourth, and although worth their lead, United were playing poorly. At this point both teams started making wholesale changes which upset Celtic's rhythm more than United's.
McCormack and Fagan came back on for Eikrem and Drinkwater. Derbyshire went into the middle, Bryan on the right, Welbeck on the left, McCormack to right back and Fagan back up front with Brandy.
A little later Eikrem came back on for Brandy, with Bryan going up front.
Lastly, after suffering a knock to his knee, Fagan came off and Brandy came back on.
In the last fifteen minutes, United had more of the play and with two minutes to go, Brandy scored a cracking goal, top right hand corner from outside the box, but by this time Celtic had eased up.
Overall it was a good run-out for our lads, given that there are no games this weekend. I thought Danny Drinkwater and Tom Cleverley were our best players and McCormack and Hewson worked hard.
It looks like United might be short of reserves, given our injury situation. Yesterday all the Under 16's were unavailable because of school commitments, so it will be interesting to see the squad for the FA Youth Cup tie in a couple of weeks.
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