Under-21s undone at United

Manchester United continued their 100 per cent start to the Premier League 2 season as our Under-21s came up short in a battle between two high-flying sides at Leigh Sports Village on Saturday lunchtime.

Without a handful of regular players, Wayne Burnett saw his young charges put to the sword by Gabriele Biancheri’s hat-trick, which the striker completed in stoppage time just after we’d been reduced to 10 men, with Diego Leon also on target for the hosts, having run from just inside his own half on the hour mark.

Callum Olusesi had earlier pulled one back for us to make it 2-1 towards the end of the first period and we pushed for a leveller after the restart – defender Luca Furnell-Gill on for his first competitive action of the season after injury and midfielder Max McFadden making his Spurs debut – but United maintained the upper hand, restored their two-goal lead through Leon and after centre-half Malachi Hardy was sent off in stoppage time for a second bookable offence within minutes of his first, Biancheri finished off his treble in the closing seconds to make for an unflattering 4-1 final scoreline.

Both sides had enjoyed strong starts to the campaign and began the weekend in second and third respectively, but United edged it on the day – although we still had our fair share of chances – as they leapfrogged Ipswich Town back into top spot.

Luca Williams-Barnett’s early strike was pushed wide by goalkeeper Dermot Mee, whose opposite number Luca Gunter stood firm to deny Biancheri moments later. However, our keeper was left rooted to the spot on 16 minutes as defender Pele Arganese-McDermott missed his attempt at a clearance following Shea Lacey’s cross, with Biancheri left to simply plant low into the corner of the net to make it 1-0 to the hosts.

Arganese-McDermott and Olusesi both had efforts cleared off the line by United skipper Jacob Devaney before Hardy did likewise at the other end to keep out Jack Fletcher’s shot from the left angle, while Williams-Barnett went close again for us following good work in the build-up by Olusesi.

A slick move in and around our box saw United double their advantage on 37 minutes, Jayce Fitzgerald’s reverse pass finding James Scanlon on the left with his low centre converted from close range by Biancheri, but we kept ourselves in the game by pulling a goal back through the excellent Olusesi four minutes before the interval. Having won the ball and initiated the attack himself, the England Under-19 midfielder was on hand to score with a shot-on-the-turn after Tyler Fletcher had played the ball against Williams-Barnett as United struggled to deal with a low drive in from the left.

We made changes at the break and almost found a leveller three minutes after the restart when Oli Irow got in behind on the left and fired just beyond the far post, but we were undone on the hour when Leon collected the ball just before the half-way line and worked his way down the middle of the pitch, our efforts to dispossess him simply not strong enough as he barged through to score.

Lacey curled just wide on the counter while Scanlon’s cross clipped the top of the crossbar, with Biancheri steering a late effort off-target as United had the better of the opportunities in the latter parts of the game. We kept plugging away but after Hardy picked up his second yellow card within five minutes of his first and was consequently dismissed with 94 on the watch, our 10 men were picked off two minutes later as Biancheri latched onto Jack Fletcher’s pass from the left and squirmed a shot beyond Gunter to compound our misery.

‘On chances created, it was probably an even game’

Coach Wayne was left frustrated with the display from his team, admitting: “The performance wasn’t up to our standards and expectations.

“I was disappointed at the manner in which we conceded the goals, we were a bit naïve at times but if you look at chances created, it was probably quite an even game. But then, if you turn the ball over in the areas that we did, it can cause you problems and that happened to us today.

“We had a really good chance early on in the second half and for the first 15 minutes of that period we were pretty good – we had two or three chances that we probably should have capitalised on. We changed it at half-time because we felt we’d struggled to get the ball onto the next line and into our front players, I certainly think we did that better in the first 15 or 20 minutes of the second half but then they scored a third where the scorer has broken from in his own half, which is not a good goal to concede from our perspective.”

Match data

Goals: Manchester United – Biancheri 16, 37, 90+6, Leon 60; Spurs – Olusesi – 41.

Yellow cards: Manchester United – Lacey 20, Devaney 30, Fitzgerald 90+1; Spurs – Kyerematen 22, Hardy 89, 90+4.

Red card: Spurs – Hardy 90+4.

Referee: James Bancroft.

Venue: Leigh Sports Village, Leigh.

Weather: Sunny, light rain showers, nine degrees.

Attendance: 466.