Interesting game.
Sunderland had the first 15 minutes and their intensity off the ball didn't allow us any space anywhere on the pitch. Most of our play was sloppy with the defenders slow on the ball and the attackers unable to keep possession.
Once Ajayi scored a cracking goal we took control, slowly got into the game and looked much better in the last 20 mins of the first half. However, our defenders were way too slow with their distribution....a first team malaise.
After the break, Sunderland made some tactical changes. The No. 9 went to centre-half, the No. 5 to centre-forward with their No. 8 dropping deeper into a whole in midfield. They were really aggressive and started to bully us, even though they were a slightly smaller team. Our defenders didn't like their physical approach at all with only Kukonki willing to 'mix it'.
Bringing pressure on to ourselves, Byrne-Hughes poor pass led to their first goal and terrible defending by Helafu allowed Sunderland to score their second. We were really all over the place.
We started playing it longer out of defence rather than 'tippy-tappy' and it led to Obi-Martin's goal as he outpaced the defender to score an equaliser at the second attempt. It also stopped Sunderland pushing on as they were clearly worried about Chido's pace. Playing the long ball from defence quickly to him, stopped a lot of the pressure. This is a classic difference between the pass, pass, pass culture and development focus of Academy football versus the 'winning mentality' in the FA Youth Cup and first team. I'm not sure who instigated the change in tactics (Fletcher or the players themselves) but it worked.
Fletcher made a couple of subs to get some physicality at the back and Brown, who had been anonymous most of the night made a great run and scored from an acute angle to give us the lead.
Both teams went end to end in the last 15 mins and could of scored, and although we had the better chances, selfish forward play meant that their keeper didn't need to make any saves.
Overall an indifferent display, similar to Peterborough and Derby County. We don't have a good FA Youth Cup TEAM, but a few stand-out individuals that continue to win games for us. Quite a few of the players may be late developers so time will tell.
Of the known names here are my views:
Armer - distribution poor on the night and very slow bringing the ball out
Kukonki - probably our best player putting in hard graft and matching their physicality
Thwaites - On his own in midfield, sloppy, unable to control the game
Gabriel - marked out of the match for most of it and although he created some space, wasted it
Ajayi - apart from his goal, he didd't do much
Obi-Martin - looked disinterested most of the game, refused to pass to players in better positions, took his goal well
The rest - average at best
Final thoughts:
1. We will have to play a lot better to overcome Palace and whoever is in the final if we get there.
2. At least we have players who can win games with a moment of magic
3. We don't like it when other teams are physical with our players being so small (not in height but in strength)
4. We have to learn how to win games with Gabriel, which we did.
5. Gabriel is a good player, but as we saw, other teams can mark him out of the game, he will learn to deal with that over time.
6. We don't play as a team...something other past teams were really good at.
7. On this showing, none of these players are anywhere near ready for the first team...Gabriel included although he clearly had an off night if you compare it to his league performances.
8. The crowd was very disappointing...2,516
No date has been set yet for the Palace semi-final at home yet, but hopefully we will get a better crowd.
