Wolves 2 (Ji 11, Greenwood 83) Middlesbrough 2 (Acheampong 24, Roberts 72)
Jashayde Greenwood’s late equaliser secured Wolves under-18s a hard-fought draw against Middlesbrough as they picked up their first U18 Premier League point of 2025.
After absorbing a lot of pressure during the opening passages of play, the Old Gold struck first as they won the ball in their half and transitioned quickly with Minkyu Ji scoring for the second game in a row.
The goal came from strong hold-up play from Reiss Bowen who managed to keep the ball and wait for his teammates to join him near the edge of Middlesbrough’s penalty area before the ball found its way to Bjorn Marwa and Myles Dayman, who worked the ball into some space before crossing the ball into Ji with his back to goal before he turned his man and calmly struck the ball past Oliver Lloyd.
Just under 15 minutes later, the visitors got back level after a long ball was played over Middlesbrough’s left side with their left-back and captain Prince Acheampong racing onto it and into space and finding himself with plenty of time around the Wolves penalty to smash the ball past a scrambling George Hardy at the near post.
The action in the first half didn’t end there as both sides had good chances to take the lead going into half-time. A couple of minutes after conceding the equaliser, Wolves were on the attack again with the well worked move ending with Marwa’s shot from outside the area going just wide.
Just before the whistle to end the first 45 minutes, Eric Hamelburg had a chance to put the visitors ahead, but his left-footed shot was sliced wide from about 12 yards out.
Half-time | Wolves 1-1 Middlesbrough
Wolves started the second half with the better chances, with their best coming after a long period of patience ended with them winning a corner that was floated in by Ji which was headed towards goal by Seb Lochhead, but it was smartly saved by Lloyd.
The hosts then made two changes in a short period of time to use the fresh legs to give them some extra impetus with their attacks as they searched for the goal that would put them back ahead again, but it would be Middlesbrough who broke the deadlock this time.
In similar fashion to the goal they scored in the first-half, Joseph Roberts found himself in loads of space on their right wing and was found by Hamelburg with enough time to settle and take a shot that also beat Hardy at his near post.
Wolves worked hard to score a second, and their toil was rewarded when they won the ball deep in their opponent’s half before working the ball across the edge of the 18-yard box allowing Joshua Ashayde to bury the chance for his first goal of the season for the under-18s with less than 10 minutes to play.
Full-time | Wolves 2-2 Middlesbrough
NEXT THREE
15/02 | Derby County (A) U18 Premier League
18/02 | Manchester United (A) U18 Premier League
22/02 | Everton (A) U18 Premier League
LINEUPS
Wolves | Hardy, Dayman, Lochhead, Elendu, White, Marwa, Wilcox, Rawlings (Osifo 62), Ford, Ji, Bowen (Ashayde 58).
Subs not used: Stafford, Grieves, Gidaree.
Middlesbrough | Lloyd, Parker, Woodhouse, Martin, Acheampong, Harrison (Bevin 68), Scott, James, Palmer (Greenup 80), O’Gorman (Roberts 68), Hamelburg (Nino 80).
Sub not used: Richardson.
Report by Rivaan Athwal
