Royals through to FA Youth Cup fourth round
Sportsdesk • Published 16 Dec 2011 10:30
0 Comments
Middlesbrough 1 - 2 Reading
READING booked their place in the FA Youth Cup fourth round thanks to an excellent 2-1 win over Middlesbrough at the Riverside.
Royals U18s trailed to a first half goal from Boro's Wilson Kneeshaw.
In-form Royals striker Dominic Samuel levelled on the hour mark with a smart finish.
Then, after a Boro goal was disallowed, substitute Uche Ikpeazu saw an effort saved only for Samuel to slot home the rebound to send Royals through.
It capped a memorable week for 17-year-old Samuel, who also put pen to paper on his first professional contract after a superb season with the club's flagship Academy side.
Samuel has scored 13 goals in 14 games which earned him a call-up to the England U19s side.
Academy director Eamonn Dolan said; "I thought we deserved to win. We played very tactically and we took a bit of a risk as a staff in terms of the way we played, because we've done very well this year.
"David Dodds, Martin Kuhl and myself, we thought it was the right thing to do. We were brave, and it paid off, especially in the second half.
"People did their jobs, and if you look at how much Dean Santangelo had to do in our goal, 2-1 was a fair result."
Reading manager Brian McDermott and director of football Nick Hammond both made the trip to Teesside to watch the third round tie.
The pair had been on a scouting trip in the north, taking in Grimsby's FA Cup second round replay defeat by Salisbury the night before.
Academy U18s coach David Dodds added: "Middlesbrough is a benchmark, they've got a number of Academy players in the first team, the whole back four.
"To beat them on their own patch speaks a lot for the spirit. They had a lot of second years playing with experience of the FA Youth Cup, that's a huge advantage."
Royals will now face West Bromwich Albion at Madejski Stadium in the fourth round. The tie must be played before January 21.
Baggies secured a 3-0 home win over Barnsley in their third round game.
Reading: Santangelo; Keown, Griffin, Cooper, Partridge; Tshibola, Webb, Tanner, Obita; Murphy (Ikpeazu 67), Samuel
Subs: Henly, Amofah, Murombedzi, Carr
Return to the main index, get more from this section or browse our Sport archives.
