Manchester United u19s got off to a good start at the Rewe Junior Cup on Friday night winning their opening two fixtures.
The United group led by Adam Lawrence took on local amateur club JFV Eichsfeld in their opening match.
As expected, United took an early lead through Albert Mills before Jim Thwaites expertly laid off to Dante Plunkett to score United’s second of the match.
United keeper Cameron Byrne-Hughes then added his name to the scoresheet when his lofted ball towards Louie Bradbury in the box was completely missed and bounced into the back of the net.
Bradbury made no mistake shortly after though with a bullet of a shot into the left corner. Thwaites and Jaydan Kamason then netted before Bradbury rounded off the scoring with his second to finish the match 7-0 to United.
United’s second match of the night proved a tougher test up against Hamburger SV.
Byrne-Hughes’ ability with the ball at his feet allowed United’s players to get high up the pitch and pin HSV back into their half. The United keeper was afforded so much space that he walked up the pitch past the halfway line before smashing a shot into the bottom left corner for his second goal in two matches.
The 17 year old is no stranger to using the ball with his feet, having famously made his u18s debut for the club on the left wing last season after a couple of injuries left United down a man with no other options on the bench.
HSV instantly responded after Byrne-Hughes goal though, with a good finish from a tight angle to make it 1-1.
Thwaites finished off a rebound after Kamason’s effort was saved to make it 2-1 before Jariyah Shah provided United’s third after pouncing on a mistake by HSV’s player-keeper to tap into an open net.
The German side were deploying an extra outfielder at the time in place of their keeper, a method United have used in previous years but haven’t used yet this year due to Byrne-Hughes’ ability on the ball.
HSV pulled one back but Byrne-Hughes then picked out Bradbury in the corner to take on his man and fire past the keeper to make it 4-2.
A classic indoor football goal pulled HSV back within one when they struck the ball off the boards and ricocheted off of Byrne-Hughes’ back and into the goal.
United’s captain Kamason finished off the match though with a nice spin to open up the space and make it a 5-3 win.
United now meet SV Rhume-Oder, JSV West Göttingen, Borussia Mönchengladbach, and 1. SC 1911 Heiligenstadt today to round out the group stage.
United squad: 1 Byrne-Hughes, 2 Kamason (C), 3 Mills, 4 Helafu, 5 Plunkett, 6 McCormack, 7 Brown, 8 Shah, 9 Bradbury, 10 Thwaites
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Colm Murphy
A football obsessed Canadian who moved to England to enjoy the beautiful game. Colm has been keen follower of Manchester United’s famed academy since seeing a fresh faced Adnan Januzaj for the club’s u18s and has been writing about football with a focus on youth development for over 10 years.
