Birmingham defeated 2-1 by U21s.
The U's U21s have beaten Birmingham City 2-1 at Florence Park.First half goals from Louis Dunne and Tom Lapslie sandwiched a Blues equaliser and the U’s youngsters comfortably held on in the second for a deserved win.
Six of the U’s starters against a young Birmingham side were on the bench for the first team’s draw with Oldham the previous night and it was the U’s who were the strongest in the early stages.
Neither keeper was troubled in the opening quarter of an hour though but that changed with young Dunne involved in both efforts for the U’s.
On sixteen minutes, he provided a defence splitting ball and only the speed off his line from visiting keeper Trueman prevented Drey Wright from capitalising.
A minute later, Dunne was on the end of a flowing move to put the U’s 1-0 up.
Wright did well to regain possession while on the deck and recovered to play a great ball into the path of Dion Sembie-Ferris on the right wing.
His low cross could have been tapped in by Jack Curtis but he was unceremoniously fouled as he went to shoot.
The referee didn’t blow for a penalty because the ball ran to Dunne at the far post and he calmly beat the keeper with a sidefooted effort.
The visitors to Florence Park were level on twenty five minutes though, Truslove heading home a dangerous cross from the right, giving the U’s keeper no chance.
Dunne then curled an effort from the edge of the box wide before Birmingham came back into the game and created two of their own.
They were denied by a good save on twenty eight minutes and then seconds later, a free kick was blasted wide.
On thirty three minutes, Tom Lapslie drove forward towards the Birmingham box, played a neat one two and then beat the last man to give himself a shot at goal.
He steadied himself before hitting his left foot effort just past the keeper’s left hand and into the net to make it 2-1 to the U’s.
There were no further clear cut chances before the break, with the U’s deserving their one goal advantage.
Birmingham started the second half on the front foot and tested the U’s keeper on a couple of occasions without success.
Nine minutes into the half, Wright, who was playing as the front man for John McGreal’s youngsters, got himself a shooting chance but was denied by the keeper at his near post.
The first change for the U’s came in the sixty fifth minute, with Byron Lawrence replacing Chris Regis in the heart of the U’s midfield.
Four minutes later, Sembie-Ferris went on a run down the right but his powerful shot across the keeper was tipped away for a corner, which came to nothing.
That was the young winger’s final involvement, with Tariq Issa replacing him on seventy two minutes.
Wright twice tested the Birmingham defence with shots, one was blocked and one saved at the near post, and sub Lawrence hit an effort just wide as the U’s looked to extend their lead late on.
Kent made way for Cameron James but he could only watch a Birmingham effort fly wide after George Elokobi had slipped on the edge of the penalty area.
The final whistle went moments later, with the U’s taking the three points in their first home game of the new U21s league season.
Another real positive from the afternoon at Florence Park was the fact that defender Elokobi completed ninety minutes in his recovery from injury.