COVENTRY CITY U18'S 2-0 ARSENAL U18'S BY KEV MONKS
Coventry City U18's put in a good performance to beat Arsenal U18's 2-0.
On a warm morning at the Alan Higgs Centre, Arsenal who included former City trialist Luke Webb in the starting eleven had the first major chance in the fifteenth minute.
Webb who had netted for City Reserves against West Ham United on Tuesday in his third match on trial, got in a shot on the turn from twenty yards. However, City keeper Jonny Tuffey reacted superbly to making a diving save and push the ball away for a corner.
Andy Gooding who was involved in midweek action with England U17's was bolstering the efforts of City's midfield and in the 24th minute,he took the corner which found Ben Turner who made the most of a lapse in the Arsenal defence to score from close range.
At half-time,Arsenal took off Anthony Stokes who had been cautioned for a handball and replaced with Aaron Samuel who had trialed with City Reserves in the 1-0 defeat at Charlton Athletic last month.
Steve Ogrizovic did the same in the 57th minute replacing Gary O'Toole with Craig Reid and Adam Leyfield with Vijay Sidhu.
It was the two substitutes that led to Coventry doubling their tally in the 69th minute when Craig Reid did well to lay the ball off for Vijay Sidhu to rave through and beat Mark Howard in the Arsenal goal with a cool finish.
Liam Davis worked well with Reid and twice in two minutes created chances which Craig Reid both sent wide.
Arsenal offered nothing but with ten minutes to go went close when a Jay Simpson shot from the right of the penalty area crashed against the crossbar and bounced down before being cleared.
HT CCFC 1-0 AFC FT CCFC 2-0 AFC
GOALS - Ben Turner (24)
Vijay Sidhu (69)
Booked Anthony Stokes
Man Of The Match - Ryan Lynch took the votes
TEAMS
Tuffey,Hall,Lynch,Ogarro,Turner,Wall,Gooding, Layfield (Singh 57),O'Toole (Reid 57),McCrink (Stringfellow 73),Davis SNU Bains
Arsenal
Howard,Clohessy (Kadir 61),Murphy, Kelly,Gilbert,Connelly, Webb,Randall, Simpson,Stokes (Samuel 46),Gill. SNU Butcher,Spaul