CITY YOUTH 2 BARNSLEY YOUTH 0

CITY’S spirited youngsters booked an FA Youth Cup date with Liverpool after toppling Barnsley at a wet Valley Parade last night.

And they did it despite spending 65 minutes with ten men after Joe Brennan was sent off.

It was a thoroughly-deserved result and they can now look forward to rubbing shoulders with the Premier League big boys in round three.

Unfortunately, the game is likely to be played at Langtree Park, the St Helens rugby league ground, rather than Anfield. Liverpool are among the elite clubs allowed to play the earlier rounds away from their usual home.

City might have been the underdogs against The Tykes, considering the size difference of the two academies, but they came bursting out of the blocks and could have had a couple in the opening ten minutes.

Winger Dylan Mottley-Henry had the two best chances as Barnsley’s jittery backline was exploited.

Keeper Danny Rusling misjudged Callum Chippendale’s lofted pass and was caught in no man’s land as Mottley-Henry nipped in behind – but could only steer his shot into the side-netting.

Then Reece Webb-Foster showed great persistence to keep James King’s long ball in play, cutting it back for Mottley-Henry to side-foot straight at the keeper.

Brennan headed across goal – and agonisingly beyond the incoming Mottley-Henry – before City’s constant pressure finally got its reward after 18 minutes.

James Pollard’s probing pass sent Webb-Foster scampering away and he was quick enough to control and then toe it past Rusling from a tight angle.

But all the good work was undone by a daft red card seven minutes later as Brennan was given his marching orders for pushing centre half Holgate in the face. The defender appeared to kick out – and got booked for his part in the clash – but it was a moment of indiscipline from the City youngster.

City’s momentum inevitably wavered with a man down, although the visitors hardly pushed them for the rest of the half.

Holgate rattled an advertising hoarding from 35 yards before Barnsley’s Bradford-born winger Talent Ndlovu finally brought keeper Elliott Barker into the game for the first time with a regulation save above his head.

Predictably, there was more urgency from the young Tykes from the re-start and they could have levelled within two minutes. Ross Kershaw and first-teamer James Bree combined in the box before 15-year-old Louis Wardle flicked over from close range.

But it was not until the final quarter of the game, sensing things were slipping away, that Barnsley began to up the ante.

Matthew Templeton did well to find room in a tight spot to force a low save from Barker before substitute Mohamed Saeed picked out Sam Hanna for a cross-shot that whizzed past the far post.

Barnsley threw Holgate up front and he immediately skied a diving header from skipper Bailey Gooda’s inviting cross.

Webb-Foster took a knock and made way for Sumaili Cissa and the City sub quickly had an opportunity to go for a second goal. But he laid it back to Sam Wright, whose first-time effort drifted into the empty Kop.

Chippendale then coughed up possession at the other end to Holgate, whose clever skill found Wardle for a chip that dropped just over the bar.

But City made sure of victory after 87 minutes with another well-worked goal. Mottley-Henry delivered a deep cross and sub Jack Waters, who had been on only three minutes, looped the header home.

CITY YOUTH: Barker, Jenkinson, King, Pollard, Kershaw, Devine, Wright, Mottley-Henry, Brennan, Chippendale (Waters 84), Webb-Foster (Cissa 76). Subs (not used): Hallwood, Omolokun, McBurnie.

BARNSLEY YOUTH: Rusling, Gooda, Cowgill, Hanna, Templeton, Wardle, Holgate, Bree, Ndlovu (Saeed 66), Carneiro (Goodwin 46), Alton. Subs (not used): Walton, Jeffs, Proctor.