Academy

Late cup joy for youngsters at Hull

Town under-17s seal place in PDL Cup quarters with dramatic late victory

u18s crewe

A winner five minutes into injury time earned the Hatters Under-18s a place in the quarter-finals of the PDL Cup on Tuesday.

Joe Deeney’s under-17 group twice fell behind against Hull City but roared back to book a place in the last eight thanks to Dylan Stitt’s late goal.

The Town youngsters fell behind in the 17th minute when the Tigers converted a penalty but it was all square 10 minutes before the break when Zach Ioannides fed Tate Xavier-Jones and the striker thundered home an emphatic finish to make it 1-1.

However, despite their dominance, the Hatters fell behind again on 43 minutes when Hull took advantage of a ricochet off goalkeeper Oliver Pipa to roll the ball into an empty net.

Hurt by going behind a second time the Town roared back with a superb second-half display.

Only a combination of fine goalkeeping and several goal-line clearances prevented the Hatters from levelling and Deeney’s side had to wait until the 79th minute to make it 2-2. Lloyd Asamoah’s cross caused havoc in the Hull penalty area and Stitt did enough to force an own goal to make it all square.

Chances for a winner kept coming but the Town then needed a big save from Pipa to deny the Tigers victory. Xavier-Jones then saw a shot roll agonisingly short of the goal-line as both sides went for glory with extra-time looming.

But the Hatters’ nine-hour round trip was rewarded when, in the fifth minute of added time, Fin Evans’ mazy run down the left saw his cross parried by the Hull keeper into the path of Stitt who couldn’t miss from two yards out.

Town: Pipa, Roberts-Edema, Fox, Ioannides, Chigozie, Kwame Anson, T. Takawira, Stitt, Xavier-Jones, Asamoah Jnr, Shepherd.

Subs: Barnes, Thomas, El-Gourja, Evans, Passley-James.

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