Report: Iron U18s suffer cup defeat to Lincoln

The Iron's Under-18s were beaten 4-1 at home by their Lincoln City counterparts in the Youth Alliance Cup on Saturday.

Academy manager Tony Daws said: "After the highs of playing well and beating Bradford City 4-2 the week before, our players were brought back down to earth and experienced the lows of a poor performance and result against Lincoln City."

United fell behind after conceding two goals in the first half on 15 and 20 minutes, and as a result never recovered.

Lincoln’s first goal came from a long free-kick 10 yards over the halfway line.

Daws added: "We allowed a free header at the far post, it was a run that we knew was coming as we had identified it in our pre-match analysis of Lincoln’s set plays."

The second goal arrived as the Iron lost possession just outside their own penalty area, trying to play it out from the back, and Lincoln scored with a low shot from the edge of the box.

United managed to pull it back to 2-1 in the second half, after a throw-in and subsequent cross to the far post where Harry Lewis finished to score his second goal in two games.

However, within minutes Lincoln scored to make it 3-1 and take the game away from the Iron.

United lost possession just over the halfway line when on the attack, Lincoln broke and the Iron didn’t pick up the runners as a pass cut through the defence for them to score.

Just moments later, the fourth goal came from a corner. United cleared the initial danger but then as a second phase cross came in were caught ball watching and didn’t pick up, so their No 9 had a free header at the centre of goal.

Daws concluded: "Over the 90 minutes our play lacked urgency and purpose and we were second best in most situations, which was disappointing."

TEAM: Balme (Crosher, 75), Baker, Moore (Elliott-Bell, 72), Kemp, Young, Lewis, Gallimore, Wilson (Moore-Billam, 72), Cribb (Griffin, 72), Dawson, Wilkinson (Virgo, 72).