HOW IT HAPPENED
Tyreece John-Jules scored a hat-trick in less than 10 minutes as our under-18s defeated Leicester City 7-0 at London Colney.
The deadlock was broken in the finest of fashions through James Olayinka, who turned his marker with a delicate first-touch, before finding the bottom left corner from the edge of the box.
We’d been executing a high-press strategy against the Foxes from the off, and in the 37th minute we were rewarded for our organised defensive work.
Captain Matthew Smith pounced on a loose ball inside the visitors’ half and played a first-time pass into the feet of John-Jules, who dummied a shot before finding the back of the net with a low left-footed strike.
Moments later, Bukayo Saka showcased his fine footwork on the wing before picking out John-Jules inside the box, who swivelled and fired the ball past Maciej Stolarczyk.
Leicester would have aimed to regroup at the break, but we carried over our relentless attaching approach into the second half and soon found our fourth of the afternoon.
Zak Swanson charged into the box and forced a foul from Dennis Gyamfi, leaving the referee with no other choice than to point to the penalty spot. John-Jules stepped up to complete his hat-trick and he made no mistake from 12 yards, finding the top-right corner.
John-Jules would try for a fourth just moments later and force Stolarczyk into a difficult save, but he parried the ball into the path of Saka, who found the back of the net from six yards out.
Saka continued to threaten out of the left wing and in the space of five minutes, found himself hunting for a hat-trick. Smith’s long ball set Saka through on goal and despite being forced to the byline, he tried his luck with his left foot and found the back of the net from a tight angle.
Saka would also go on to create our final goal of the afternoon. Our No 11 delivered a perfectly weighted cross to the back post from a free-kick, and there was Mazeed Ugongbo to head the ball home from close range and round up the scoring.
WHAT’S NEXT
We must now turn out attention to our U-18 Premier League clash against Chelsea on Saturday, September 1.
The game will take place at Cobham Training Ground with kick-off at 11am (UK time).
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