Report | Swansea City U18s 5 Colchester United U18s 1
A five-star performance from Swansea City Under-18s saw them ease to victory against Colchester United at Landore in the Professional Development League.
A brace from Tom Woodward, and goals from Sammy Henia-Kamau, Jack Fanning and Yori Griffith saw the Swans get their first league win in four games with a dominant performance.
The Swans were three goals to the good by half-time with Henia-Kamau opening the scoring with a close-range finish, before Fanning doubled the lead with a header from a corner, and Woodward also headed home shortly before the interval.
The U’s opened the scoring in the second half through a trialist but, not long after conceding, the Swans scored two quickfire goals within a couple of minutes to pick up all three points as Griffith and Woodward netted.
The Swans had shown several changes from last week’s defeat to Millwall as Aimar Govea Henia-Kamau and Caio Ifans all came into the starting line-up.
The Swans started brightly, and opened the scoring within a couple of minutes. Cameron Llewellyn drove down the wing and drilled the ball across goal into Henia-Kamau, who coolly slotted the ball past goalkeeper Jayden Peglar from close range.
The Swans pushed for a second when Fanning nodded Govea’s cross over the bar, before Woodward forced a good save from the keeper after good work by Ifans.
The U’s were struggling to deal with the intensity of Swansea’s play, and another chance soon fell to Woodward, who turned his man and got away a shot which was deflected into Peglar’s gloves.
Chances kept coming for the hosts. Griffith fired over the bar after a blocked shot fell to him in the box, while Peglar was alert to save from Henia-Kamau.
The Swans made their dominance count and doubled their lead when a corner from Govea was met by defender Fanning, who lost his man to leave himself with a free header which he converted.
A third goal came just over 10 minutes later, Llewellyn’s near-post cross was met by Woodward, whose header was too powerful for Peglar to keep out.
It nearly got worse for the visitors when Govea troubled the U’s defence again when he beat his man and picked out Woodward, but Peglar tipped the forward’s effort over the bar.
The first chance of the second half also fell to the Swans. Govea received a ball just outside the box, but his shot from distance did not trouble Peglar.
Woodward dragged an effort wide from another fine Govea corner, before Griffith had a goal ruled out for offside.
Instead of Swansea adding to their tally, the U’s pulled one back when a trialist’s shot from outside the area beat Kit Margetson to cut the deficit.
But any hopes of a comeback were quickly snuffed out as Swansea responded almost immediately, Griffith beating Peglar from a low ball into the box.
And Woodward went on to round off the scoring as he drilled the ball into the bottom corner after being freed by Llewellyn’s fine pass.
Swansea City Under-18s: Kit Margetson, Thomas Searle, Jack Cooper, Jacob Cook, Jack Fanning (captain), (Josh Pescatore 45), Caio Ifans, (Brogan Popham 45), Cameron Llewellyn, Yori Griffith, Sammy Henia-Kamau, (Rohan Davies 60), Thomas Woodward, Aimar Govea (Callum Jones 67)
Unused substitutes: Ewan Griffiths
Colchester United Under-18s: Jayden Peglar, Andrew Palmer-Brown, Rash Drysdale, Al-Amin Kosoko, (Harvey Duggins 80), Caiden Lewis, Fela Abidekun, Samson Uwandu, (Alex Kokoshi 45), Ronnie Harvey, Jamie Arnold (captain), (Lennox Emery 80), Burak Sabah (Kai Martin 80), Trialist
Unused Substitutes: Jack Sexton