Saints Under-18s were resounding 5-0 winners over Red Bull Leipzig in their second match of the GF Cup on Wednesday.
Fresh from their 1-0 success over HB Koge on Tuesday, the youngsters turned in an impressive performance to see off a much-fancied Leipzig side in this year’s competition.
Jason Dodd freshened up his side with six changes to the starting line up from the previous day, but it was a player who kept his place from the Koge game that opened the scoring for the visitors.
After chasing down a lost cause, Ryan SEAGER showed composure to fire Saints into an early lead with a firm right footed finish.
The lead was doubled before half time when Jake Hesketh’s corner was headed home by Omar ROWE as the visitors got a strong foothold on the contest going into the break.
After the interval Saints stepped up another gear and extended their lead with a well worked team goal involving full back Matt Targett and Hesketh, with the latter producing an assist for SEAGER’s second of the game before the hour mark.
It was 4-0 on 71 when substitute Gregory Ariybi supplied HESKETH to notch one for himself after the midfielder produced a fine touch and shot on the turn for an emphatic finish.
The gloss was added to the win with five minutes remaining as substitute Jake SINCLAIR scored his second goal in as many games after successfully winning and converting a penalty to make an even more convincing scoreline.
A second win in as many days gave Dodd plenty to be satisfied about and admitted that the performance perhaps even exceeded expectations.
“They were a strong and physical side,” he said of Leipzig, “and in comparison we were a smaller team but we played extremely well.
“We made another good start, and the early goal settled the nerves a bit.
“At half time we challenged the boys to keep going and to catch them on the counter-attack which they did. We then kept our discipline and managed the game well which is something I’d pointed to after the previous game that we needed to do better on.
“It’s very pleasing as we’ve given everyone the same amount of game time now, and we’ll continue to share that out in the match on Friday against Lyngby.”
Saints U18s: Britt, Clinton, Mugabi, McCarthy, Targett, Gape (Turnbull 60), Rowe (Ariyibi 60), Simms (Sinclair 75), Hesketh (Reed 75), Seager (Chappe 60), Gallagher.
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