The Manchester United U18s played Nottingham Forest at home on Saturday morning after their international break.
Many of United’s more notable players were away in Scotland with the under-21 team, therefore the team was young. This provided opportunities for several debutants, including Godwill Kukonki, who played left back from the start. While there were new faces on the field, Phil Jones, who was a member of the coaching staff that day, was a familiar figure on the sidelines.
There weren’t many opportunities for either side in the first quarter of an hour until Reece Munro was able to score from close range after a cross from Malachi Sharpe wasn’t cleared. However, it was stopped at the goal line. Forest then made a threat from their own cross, which was finally sent into the side netting.
Ruben Curley made the decision to shoot from a long distance in the 23rd minute, but his well-placed shot was deflected over the bar by an equally spectacular stop.
When Sharpe received the ball from Curley inside, he had a clear shot opportunity from the edge of the box, but it was deflected over. The five-man backline for Forest was proving to be hard to breach.
When Connor Brown surged in behind on a counterattack at the 40th minute and forced a significant save from Tom Myles, Forest demonstrated they were still in the game.
Up until that moment, they had been in complete control of the game, but things turned around in the last minutes of the first half when Ashton Missin, who was playing energetically on the wing, was sent off after receiving two yellow cards in less than a minute. The 17-year-old started out by blocking a counterattack to receive his first caution, but as soon as play resumed, he lunged into a late challenge and forced the referee to give him the boot.
In the 43rd minute, some careless defending led to the loss of possession before Myles desperately slid out and gave up a penalty, adding insult to injury for United. Brown of Forest slid a goal into the bottom right corner to send United into the half behind 0-1 and with 10 men on the field.
As Forest barraged United’s box in the first minutes of the second, it appeared as though a landslide was about to occur. However, Adam Lawrence’s young reds quickly got their feet and were back in the game.
The game’s best player, Curley, slipped past the Forest defender and goalkeeper before looking to slide the ball into the open net, but a desperate clearing on the line prevented the midfielder from scoring a goal that was richly earned.
But United quickly responded, tying the score in minute 59. Finley McAllister received a brief corner kick and clipped the ball to the back post, where Jack Kingdon slid in to push the ball beyond the Forest goalkeeper.
After Myles dropped the ball, Forest scored again in the 72nd minute, but an offside call saved the United goalkeeper’s face.
After getting off the bench to make his u18s debut, 15-year-old Jim Thwaites snuck by the Forest defender on the right before having his heel clipped inside the area, bringing him down and earning United a penalty.
After a tenacious and morale-boosting second half, Victor Musa took the ball to the penalty spot and drilled the ball into the bottom left corner to give United the victory and gain three points.