Spurs under 23’s 2-0 Manchester City: (match report)

Our under 23’s recorded their first win of the new PL2 season in style on Friday night, after they overcame a talented Manchester City side 2-0 at Broadhall Way. Wayne Burnett went for the same system that had earned our development side a point ten days earlier, in their Checkatrade trophy game against Crawley Town. Burnett’s trust in the like of Luis Binks and Paris Maghoma (both 17) paid off once again on Friday evening, as Spurs overcame a potent possession based Manchester City side. The sky blues enjoyed the majority of possession throughout the game and with their high press and energy in the final third, they made life difficult for Spurs. After a tricky opening 20 minutes which had seen the visitors create a couple of decent chances for themselves as they moved the ball around well, Spurs were struggling to get a hold on the game. However, a perfectly weighted defence splitting pass from Paris Maghoma in the 21st minute, changed all that. Maghoma was outstanding on the night and the 17 year olds pass to set Shayon Harrison through on goal totally paralysed the Man City defence, as Harrison ran through to cooly give Spurs the lead. Then, eight minutes later Spurs doubled their advantage through Paris Maghoma who made an excellent darting run across the Manchester City defence before picking up Oliver Skipp’s excellent pass. In typical fashion, Maghoma kept his cool in front of goal as he calmly skipped past the outrushing goalkeeper before clipping home to give Spurs a healthy two goal cushion. It was an excellent game of football but Spurs didn’t dominate the game by any means, Manchester City remained a threat throughout the remainder of the game. The unstoppable speed of Rabbi Matondo caused havoc for Spurs down the flanks as did the many surging runs through the middle from Tom Dele-Bashiru. Paul Harsley’s side gave a good account of themselves on the night, but they couldn’t recover from Spurs’ two quick goals in the first half.

Spurs showed a real maturity about their game and they defended extremely well, whilst goalkeeper Brandon Austin had another heroic game as he made eight impressive stops. Spurs’ first win of the season sees them move out of the relegation zone ahead of next Sunday’s trip to Liverpool when they face Everton at Goodison park. Opting to leave the likes of Japhet Tanganga on the bench for our league game with Manchester City, Burnett decided to stick with the likes of Maghoma and Binks who retained their places in an identical system to the one in which they used against Crawley Town in the Checkatrade trophy. Brandon Austin kept his place in goal for Burnett’s side whilst a back three of Jonathan Dinzeyi, George Marsh and Luis Binks lined up in front of him. In front of them was the defensive midfield partnership of Luke Amos (the skipper) and the much welcomed return of one Oliver Skipp. Both were joined on either side with Eyoma and Brown who played as wingbacks. Paris Maghoma and Jack Roles played effectively as inside forwards behind the experienced Shayon Harrison who led the line for the second consecutive game. The visitors got the game underway on a mild autumnal evening in Stevenage as a fairly large crowd took to their seats inside Broadhall Way. Manchester City threatened our defence in the opening couple of seconds of the game. After George Marsh had almost lost the ball to Benjamin Garre on the edge of the Tottenham penalty area, thankfully on this occasion he had gotten lucky. Then a couple of moments later the ridiculously athletic Rabbi Matondo sprinted past Luis Binks down the right wing before continuing onto the byline, before clipping a cross into the box which was cleared away by the alert Dinzeyi. Paul Harsley’s Manchester City side were hogging possession in the opening stages as Spurs struggled to get much of the ball. However, we should have had a penalty after Paris Maghoma was brought down unlawfully inside the penalty area by Cameron Humphrys early on. After the midfielder combined well with Harrison on the edge of the penalty area Harrison slipped the ball into him. Maghoma’s protest were ignored by the referee Sam Purkiss.

Brandon Austin made his first save of the game shortly afterwards as he comfortably gathered Nabil Touaizi’s low effort from range. The visitors were moving the ball around the pitch a lot quicker than us and they were creating some decent chances in the process. After Adrian Bernabe found Matondo out on the right wing, the wide man powered forwards before squaring the ball to Touaizi who was waiting inside the box. However, the Frenchman’s scuffed effort was easily held by the grateful Brandon Austin. Paul Harsley’s intricate side continued to threaten the Tottenham defence as Garre whipped a menacing ball across the face of Austin’s goal from out wide. Limited only to a couple of half chances inside Manchester City’s final third, Spurs had to be resourceful with the ball. A good move which saw Eyoma pass the ball to Skipp down the right wing saw the young midfielder attempt to find Harrison with a low cross inside the penalty area. However, Skipp’s cross came bouncing straight off the leg of Harrison who failed to control the ball. Jonathan Dinzeyi made an important interception at the other end to break up a dangerous attack from Touaizi as Man City continued to look the more likely team to score. That’s why it came as quiet a surprise to me when Spurs took the lead against the run of play through Shayon Harrison in the 21st minute of the game. After picking the ball up in the centre of the park, young Paris Maghoma looked up before playing the most perfectly weighted defence splitting pass right through the middle of the Manchester City defence. Catching them off guard, the defenders were paralysed as Maghoma sent Harrison through on goal. The centre forward showed remarkable composure as he entered the penalty area before calmly tucking the ball past Daniel Grimshaw and into the bottom left hand corner of the goal, 1-0. Maghoma raced over to Harrison by the corner flag as the pair celebrated Spurs’ opening goal of the game. Luis Binks did well shortly afterwards to intercept the ball off of the darting Matondo to put the ball out for a corner kick.

The so far impeccable goalkeeping of Brandon Austin took a further turn shortly afterwards as the 19 year old produced an excellent diving stop to prevent Touaizi from finding the back of the net. After being played in down the right hand side of the penalty area by Garre, Touaizi attempted to beat Austin with a powerful low effort towards the far corner of the goal. However, he got down well to make an exceptional fingertip save. Jonathan Dinzeyi was forced into clearing Benjamin Garre’s menacing cross a couple of moments later before Marsh then threw himself in the way of Dele-Bashiru’s cross. Then a mere eight minutes after we had taken the lead, Wayne Burnett’s side doubled their advantage through the excellent Paris Maghoma. Similar to the first goal in many ways, Oliver Skipp spotted Maghoma’s darting run across the Man City defence. Skipp fed Maghoma in with a well weighted pass inside the Man City penalty area, Maghoma took an excellent first touch before cooly skipping away from the outrushing Grimshaw and calmly clipping the ball into the empty net, 2-0. Spurs were now showing a remarkable energy to their game and unsurprisingly they were looking a lot more confident with the ball. Only a couple of minutes after doubling Spurs’ lead Maghoma made a terrific sliding challenge to win the ball off of Bernabe on the edge of the oppositions penalty area before quickly poking the ball out to Roles out on the right wing. However, the Cypriot youth internationals low cross just failed to pick out Harrison at the back post. Roles then had an excellent goalscoring chance a couple of minutes later, after Skipp had set him through down the right. Roles sprinted down the right before entering the penalty area where he was met by the outrushing Grimshaw. Roles’s effort was hit straight at the Manchester City goalkeeper with the ball then coming out to Maghoma on the edge of the penalty area. However, Maghoma was unable to get his shot away as two Man City players crowded him out. Once again Maghoma looked for a penalty kick as he lay on the ground. Jonathan Dinzeyi made an excellent sliding challenge on Garre shortly after as Spurs continued to defend extremely well.

The ever threatening Matondo then fired the ball across the goal as Austin managed to get a touch to divert it clear or so he thought. Bernabe was waiting on the opposite side but his similarly wild effort flew across the face of the goal. Jaden Brown picked up a yellow card shortly after for a mistimed challenge on Dele-Bashiru. Paris Maghoma then blazed well wide of goal after playing a one-two with Harrison on the edge of the box. Dele-Bashiru responded by firing an effort wide from long range at the other end of the pitch as an enthralling and hugely productive first half came to a close. Burnett’s side got the second half underway as they looked to build on their impressive two goal lead. And Paris Maghoma came close to doing exactly that early on in the half. After receiving Jack Roles pass Maghoma cut inside from the left wing, before going on a lovely jinking run through the middle as he powered forwards. Maghoma tricked his way past Dele-Bashiru before forcing a good diving save out of Grimshaw with a good curling effort from the edge of the penalty area. Oliver Skipp nodded the ball just over from George Marsh’s resulting corner as Spurs started the second half with the same energy that they had ended the first in. Another incisive move saw Amos pick out Brown out on the left wing with a nice pass. Brown sprinted forwards before finding Harrison at the back post with a nice cross. Harrison connected with it first time and volleyed narrowly wide of the goal. Shayon Harrison was almost played through by Maghoma a couple of minutes later as Spurs continued to dominate proceedings. Manchester City’s first effort at goal of the half came from Matondo who had switched flanks at half time. Cutting in dangerously from the left, the Welshman fired an effort at goal which flew narrowly over Austin’s crossbar from the edge of the box, courtesy of an important touch off of Dinzeyi. Touaizi then played a nice pass to Garre who cut inside from the right wing before forcing an easy save out of Austin at his near post.

And the Tottenham goalkeeper was forced into action again only a matter of minutes later to thwart Matondo’s powerful low effort, after the former Cardiff schoolboy had cut inside before shooting from the edge of the penalty area. Jonathan Dinzeyi blocked the same players effort from range a couple of moments later as Spurs were forced into dealing with a barrage of attacks from the visitors. Dele-Bashiru then fired an effort over the crossbar after powering his way through the middle before Oliver Skipp produced an important block to stop the newly introduced Iker Pozo’s shot on the edge of the penalty area. Spurs started to find their rhythm again as Maghoma shifted the ball out to Brown out on the left wing. The fullback squared it for Maghoma who had made a run towards the edge of the penalty area. The midfielders first time side footed effort flew narrowly over Grimshaw’s crossbar. Maghoma had shown great understanding to link up with Brown in the first place and to initiate the move. Brandon Austin was then called into action at the other end after Alpha Dionkou had played a pass to Touaizi inside the penalty area. However, Austin was alert and came rushing off his line to make an important stop before smothering the loose ball before Touaizi could finish on the follow up. George Marsh became the second Spurs player to pick up a yellow card after he was booked on 75 minutes after committing a cynical foul to break up a dangerous Man City attack. Shayon Harrison forced a decent save out of Grimshaw with a powerful effort from the edge of the penalty area moments later. French teenager Claudio Gomes then forced a similar save out of Austin a couple of minutes later with a testing low effort from just outside the penalty area. Shayon Harrison came off in place of Tashan Oakley-Boothe with 11 minutes still to go after leading the line extremely well. Luis Binks hadn’t put a foot wrong and the young centre half produced two vital late pieces of defending to ensure that Spurs’ clean sheet was still intact.

First to get in front of his man to clear Matondo’s cross and then Binks blocked Dele-Bashiru’s follow up on the edge of the penalty area. Harsley’s side were really going for it as the game started to draw to a close. An intricate
late move saw Pozo pass the ball out to Touaizi out on the right wing, the Frenchman then cut the ball back to Gomes on the edge of the penalty area. However, Gomes effort was well saved by Austin, Dylan Duncan entered the frame shortly afterwards to replace the highly effective Paris Maghoma. Jaden Brown was lucky not to get himself sent off after taking out Garre out in the penalty area without getting anything on the ball during the final moments of the game. Brandon Austin comfortably held Claudio Gomes’s late effort as Burnett’s side passed the ball around the park during the final moments of the game, as Spurs went onto record their first win of the new PL2 season. It was an excellent performance from Burnett’s young side, they demonstrated their maturity and ability against a very good Manchester City team. It would seem that playing with three at the back is proving quite beneficial for Burnett’s side.

Player reviews: – Brandon Austin: Yet again the young goalkeeper put in a heroic performance in between the sticks. Austin was on the top of his game against Man City and his many excellent and important saves, saved Burnett’s side on countless occasions. Making eight saves in total, Austin didn’t put a foot wrong and managed to deal with set pieces well. His diving save to stop Nabil Touaizi’s effort in the first half could only be described as world class.
– Jonathan Dinzeyi: It was a really mature and assured performance from the ever improving centre half on Friday evening. Playing on the right side of a back three, Dinzeyi put in a flawless defensive performance. Snuffing out danger well and knowing when to step in front of his man. Dinzeyi helped to break up numerous Man City attacks. He was also dominant in the air and made more clearances than any other player on the night. Dinzeyi’s passing was also impressive and accurate.
– George Marsh: The skipper played in the middle of the Tottenham back three and in many ways provided the defence with real leadership. Marshalling his teammates well throughout the game, the 19 year old made many blocks, clearances and interceptions. He added steel to the Spurs defence and helped both Binks and Dinzeyi out on numerous occasions.
– Luis Binks: After appearing for the development side in the Checkatrade trophy game against Crawley. Binks retained his place in Burnett’s side for the game against Manchester City. And once again the first year scholar defied his age by putting in an excellent performance on the left side of the back three. The Kent born teenager showed remarkable levels of maturity and understanding whilst defending against the sky blues potent attacking front line. The 17 year old read the game well and in his almost Alderweireld-esque defending kept good positioning throughout. Not once did Binks make a sliding challenge, he defended on his feet and did so superbly well. Pinging some lovely balls out to Brown and Eyoma on the flanks as well. Binks made it difficult for the speedy Rabbi Matondo to cut inside during the first half of the game. The teenager also made a superb piece of defending during the second half to prevent two goalscoring chances, he has that rare ability to know exactly when he needs to come across his man. Our under 23’s defence has really improved since he has been drafted into the side and it is no coincidence.
– Jaden Brown: Brown put in a good showing at left wing back, particularly in the second half when he didn’t have to deal with the speedy Rabbi Matondo. Brown protected that flank well and looked good going forward, whipping some nice crosses into the box in the process. It will be interesting to see if Brown is included in Tottenham’s UEFA youth league squad ahead of Tuesdays game against Inter Milan.
– Luke Amos: The skipper played such a crucial role in the victory over Manchester City. Operating essentials as a midfield anchor man, Amos covered so much ground as he protected the back three alongside Skipp. Amos was so effective in the middle of the park as a ball winning midfielder, Kante-esque (which he’ll be pleased with me saying) Amos was terrific in his cdm role. He must surely be eyeing a start in our league cup tie with Watford in a couple of weeks time.
– Oliver Skipp: Whenever Oliver Skipp plays he gives Burnett’ side a different edge at that’s exactly what he provided us with on Friday night, as he partnered Amos in the centre of midfield. Skipp dictated play impacting us offensively with his many driving runs through the middle, but also getting stuck in and helping to protect the back three. Skipp who turned 18 on Sunday was domineering and decisive, his decision making with the ball at his feet was top class and he made a number of excellent passes throughout the game including the one which set up Maghoma’s goal. Dare I say it but I think he is too good for this level!
– TJ Eyoma: The 19 year old operated as a right wing back for the Manchester City game and whilst he put in a decent first half showing up against Benjamin Garre. Eyoma really struggled to deal with the electric Rabbi Matondo after the Welshman switched flanks at half time. Matondo tore Eyoma apart down that right hand side and it didn’t matter what the 18 year old tried, he just couldn’t stop him.
– Paris Maghoma: My motm, see below.
– Jack Roles: Roles made a really positive impact on the game in what was his first PL2 start of the season. The Cypriot youth international played on the right hand side of an attacking triangle and managed to be one of Burnett’s most creative and effective players throughout the game. Roles provided excellent movement in the final third, constantly getting himself into nice little pockets of space. By doing this he helped out the likes of Harrison and Maghoma, the 19 year old made some lovely passes during the game and also showed really quick feet. Berbatov-esque in many ways Roles will be disappointed that he wasn’t able to get on the scoresheet.
– Shayon Harrison: Harrison led the line well for the second consecutive game, working extremely hard up top. The 21 year showed good movement and a real willingness to drop deep. His first half goal was really well taken and he could have had another in the second half had luck been on his side.
– Tashan Oakley-Boothe: N/A.
– Dylan Duncan: N/A.
My man of the match: Paris Maghoma. Operating as an inside forward/cam Paris Maghoma put in an incredible performance against Manchester City on Friday. The 17 year old was the difference between the two sides. Setting up Shayon Harrison’s opener with a perfectly weighted through ball, the midfielder then doubled our lead with an excellently taken goal a couple of minutes later after making a brilliant run across the defence. Maghoma had an immense impact on the game and he was a real thorn in Manchester City’s side. Unlike in the Arsenal and Liverpool games where he was forced into dropping deep due to the circumstances, Maghoma was able to really express himself against the sky blues. Orchestrating play in an almost Onomah-esque way, Maghoma caused havoc for the Manchester City defence with his many slaloming runs, crisp passes and impressive link up play. Maghoma showed a real maturity and understanding about his game. He was sharp in his play and aware of his surroundings. On another day he could have had a hat-trick but I couldn’t have been more pleased with the way he conducted himself on Friday evening as he continued his excellent start to the new season. Young Paris had many kids coming up to him at the end of the game looking for autographs and photographs, and that on its own tell you everything you need to know about his performance.

Spurs: Austin, Eyoma, Brown, Marsh, Dinzeyi, Binks, Maghoma (Duncan 84), Amos (c), Harrison (Oakley-Boothe 79), Skipp, Roles. Substitutes (not used): De Bie, Tanganga.

Manchester City: Grimshaw, Dionkou, Humphreys (c), Rosler, Ogbeta, Gomes, Matondo, Dele-Bashiru, Touaizi (Gonzalez 84), Bernabe (Pozo 46), Garre (Poveda 62). Substitutes (not used): Scott, Richards, Gonzalez.

Goals: Spurs – Harrison 21, Maghoma 29.

Yellow cards: Spurs – Brown 40, Marsh 75; City – Dionkou 58.

Referee: Sam Purkiss.

Venue: Lamex Stadium, Stevenage.

Attendance: 637.

Spurs under 21/23’s statistics 2018/19:

Goals scored: Shayon Harrison – 3
Samuel Shashoua – 1
Marcus Edwards – 1
Jaden Brown – 1
Paris Maghoma -1

Assists: Troy Parrott – 1
Jaden Brown – 1
Shayon Harrison – 1
Paris Maghoma – 1
Oliver Skipp – 1