Derby County 5 (Ward 5, Oguntolu 29, Smith 32, Hodges 62, Blake 78) Wolves 1 (Ji 17)
A young Wolves under-18s were comfortably defeated by Derby County in their U18 Premier League fixture at Moor Farm.
The game was initially very even before the hosts took the lead in the 5th minute through James Ward as a cross from the left-hand side found its way across the box to Ward whose shot bounced towards the bottom left corner for the home side to take the lead early.
Wolves would find themselves back level quite quickly as they took one of their many good chances of the half with Hayden Ford crossing the ball in and Minkyu Ji’s diving header meeting the ball at the right time for it to also find the bottom left corner. This was Ji’s third goal in as many U18 Premier League games.
The action on the pitch was as even as the scoreline for the next quarter of an hour as both sides exchanged possession of the ball regularly, but the hosts once again were able to capitalise on small mistakes as Justin Oguntolu found himself 1v1 in the box against George Hardy before putting Derby back ahead again.
The Rams then doubled their lead shortly after as Wolves let them back into their box very easily with Oguntolu this time becoming the creator instead of the scorer as he played in Charlie Smith with his chance also finding the back of the net from around six yards out.
Half-time | Derby 3-1 Wolves
The start of the second half was very cagey as both sides lost possession frequently with both midfields struggling to get a grip on the game, with the occasional foul slowing down and breaking the flow of the game, but just after the hour mark this would change.
Derby won a corner around the 62nd minute which was half cleared by the Wolves defence to just outside the area where it found the waiting Dantel Hodges who struck the ball sweetly as it made its way through the players in the box before finding the bottom corner to put Derby well clear of any danger they may have faced only being two goals up.
The fifth goal would come 12 minutes from full-time with substitute Zayne Blake who tapped the ball in from a few yards out to put the Old Gold even further behind as the points were well and truly sealed.
Full-time | Derby 5-1 Wolves
NEXT THREE
18/2 Manchester United (A) U18 Premier League
22/2 Everton (A) U18 Premier League
1/3 Newcastle (H) U18 Premier League
LINEUPS
Derby County | Price, Stokes (Doyle 65), Canoville, Marriott, Cornell-Webster (Friars 57), Hodges, Mintus, Smith (Blake 70), Tola, Ward (Corry 70), Oguntolu.
Subs not used | Rees.
Wolves | Hardy, Ford, White, Elendu (Gidaree 58), Lochhead, Wilcox, Osifo (Stafford 75), Marwa, Bowen, Ji, Greenwood (Stevens 76).
Subs not used | Grieves, Abbey.
Report by Rivaan Athwal
