Andy Farrell?s under-21 team have reached another cup final with a 4-3 victory against Stockport County this afternoon.
It was a topsy-turvy game with us taking the lead and then falling behind before twice more going in front before the game was won. One of the Stockport goals was scored by one of our own players, the second time he?s committed such damage recently, and to add to all that we failed from the penalty spot with the score at 2-2.
Andy Farrell made three changes to the team that beat Charlton 2-0 three days ago with Murray Campbell replacing Logan Pye in the centre of defence, Basilio Rieno Socoliche coming in for under-16 Brandon Pouani with the third change seeing Sunday?s goalscorer Tommy McDermott drop out to enable trialist Kamarni Ryan, an 18-year-old set to leave Arsenal in the summer,  to start. There was a familiar name in the Stockport line up with our under-18 midfielder Callum West in their number four shirt. West is one of the players who is leaving us at the end of the season and this is the second time he?s played against us having come on as a substitute and scored against us for Hull in our recent Professional Development League game there.
It all started well for us when, in only the fifth minute, Socoliche got down the right to cross for Vernon Masara to finish from close range at the far post. In a frantic start, both goalkeepers made good saves before Stockport drew level from the penalty spot.
The goal seemed to knock us back for a while ...