Scunthorpe United Juniors 1-0 Darlington Juniors
Report from Birch Park

Josh Thomas netted the winning goal as United's youth team defeated their Darlington counterparts 1-0 on Saturday morning to stay top of the Puma Youth Alliance U18 North East Division.

Playing at a blustery Birch Park, the Iron kicked off but it was Darlington who were the first to show. It took first year central defender Ashley Palmer, fresh from a competent reserve outing at York City in midweek, to clear the cross at the far post.

The hosts created a chance on four minutes when striker Thomas, back in the side after illness, played in left-winger Jack Cross but his effort lacked accuracy and the shot drifted wide of the near post.

The Iron again almost took the lead on 10 minutes when a good ball in from Cross saw top scorer Marcus Gibbs head wide of the far post.

Darlington came back and after some slick passing play striker Robinson shot wide of the Iron goal as the Quakers demonstrated that they were not going to be easily beaten by the league leaders.

Cross put in a corner for the Iron midway through the first half which was cleared at the near post and his second corner saw Palmer head narrowly wide at the far post.

Just past the half hour mark, Iron right back Johnathan Williams forced a good run forward and played in Thomas who was brought down on the edge of the visitors penalty box. From the resulting free kick it was Williams who found captain Joe Maguire climbing well to send in a header that almost opened the scoring.

Striker Gibbs received the ball with his back to goal on the stroke of half time. A terrific drag back and turn created space but this time he bulleted his shot wide of the Quakers far post and the teams went in level at the interval.

Scunthorpe started the second half at a good tempo but Cross could not pick a team mate out in the middle and his cross was easily cut out by the Darlington keeper.

Maguire stepped forward on 55 minutes but could only fire his shot wide of the visitors' goal as United stepped up the pressure. The breakthrough came on the hour mark and it was striker Josh Thomas back in the starting line up after illness who netted his first league goal of the season.

A well delivered free kick from Cross found the head of Palmer who directed his header down. The ball was bobbling around in the Quakers six-yard box until Thomas pounced to stab the loose ball home much to his team mate's delight and to nudge the Iron in front.

An almost identical free kick two minutes later occurred but this time Cross could only find the hands of the Darlington keeper Nick Thomson who was having a good game in the away team's goal.

Kieron McCaffrey almost gave Darlington the chance to equalise on 72 minutes when his misdirected header found Darlo striker Adam Mohammed but Palmer snuffed out the threat much to the relief of his colleague McCaffrey.

Gbanie blasted his pass back to goalkeeper Jake Turner on 73 minutes and the Iron keeper did well to deal with a difficult ball making a good clearance.

United were indebted to Turner on 80 minutes. Quakers left winger John McReady cut inside Williams and drove a superb shot which seemed destined to end up in the back of the Iron goal. Turner somehow managed to adjust his feet and tip the ball on to his crossbar before being clattered collected the rebound.

Nevertheless, the Iron held on to win the game,

Head of youth Tony Daws said: "It wasn't our best display but credit to the lads as we had to dig deep today to get a result against a good Darlington team who caused us problems at times.

"I'm very pleased with our start to the season and particularly with the fact that one or two of the youngsters played well in the midweek reserve game at York after making the step up."

Read a full in-depth report from Tony Daws in the Preston North End edition of THE IRON.