U21s Report: City 5 Shrewsbury 1

A fine Harry Panayiotou strike and Jacob Blyth’s penalty handed them a healthy 2-0 lead at the break, before Adam Dawson made it 3-0 with a far post finish in the second half. 

Ryan Hickman pulled one back for the away side to raise hopes of a comeback, but Joe Dodoo extinguished those with two strikes in the final 10 minutes to secure a safe passage into the semi-finals as Group A winners. 

Development Squad boss Steve Beaglehole told LCFC.com after the final whistle: “I thought the attitude of the lads was great. We scored five good goals but we were all disappointed with the goal that we conceded because we wanted a clean sheet. 

“That said, we’ve scored 13 goals in the competition and conceded just one, so by any standards that’s good going. 

“We changed the shape of the team a couple of times to look at things ahead of the Manchester United game on Monday night, so it’s been a great exercise and one or two players I thought played really, really well. 

“Joe Dodoo scored two goals and was a constant threat. I thought Harry Panayiotou’s first goal was absolutely terrific and Rob Paratore did well for a big part of the game.” 

City began on the front foot, but despite the out and out pace of Marcel Barrington causing the visitors problems, it was Jamie Anton’s left wing cross that almost brought the early breakthrough, only for Rob Paratore to head over. 

But it wasn’t until the 30-minute mark that the floodgates finally opened. Blyth and Panayiotou combined brilliantly on the edge of the box, allowing the latter to go through on the right to fire a brilliant angled drive past goalkeeper and make it 1-0. 

Just two minutes later, the lively Ben Frempah drove into the box from the right and a poorly timed challenge on him from a Shrewsbury defender left the referee no choice but to award a penalty. 

The ever-reliable Blyth stepped up to confidently dispatch the spot kick into the top left corner for 2-0. 

After the break Blyth and Panayiotou continued to combine impressively – both stinging the palms of the goalkeeper, while at the other end, Kaimen Anderson brought a fine stop from Luke Simpson when one-on-one with the City ‘keeper. 

George Taft and Kieran Kennedy got in the way of everything Shrewsbury could throw at them, and they were joined on 65 minutes by substitutes Callum Elder and Herve Pepe Ngoma – Barrington and Frempah making way. 

Hopes of a Shrewsbury comeback were put into doubt on 70 minutes. A fine breakaway saw Blyth dink a cute pass to the far post where a waiting Dawson was on hand to stroke the ball accurately into the corner. 

Shrewsbury did hand themselves a lifeline on 74 minutes though when Hickman drilled a low shot into the corner from a cutback on the right. 

The game looked to have been finally put to bed in the 81st minute however, and it was a goal beautifully engineered by Dodoo. He twisted and turned inside the area to create a narrow gap, through which he drilled a low left foot strike to make it 4-1. 

He wasn’t finished there either, as deep into stoppage time the excellent Dodoo drove at the creaking Shrewsbury backline and saw a 20-yard shot deflect off a defender, looping up and over a helpless Callum Burton to seal a 5-1 win. 

CITY: Simpson, Frempah (Pepe Ngoma 65), Anton, Paratore, Kennedy Taft, Dawson, Panayiotou, Blyth, Dodoo, Barrington (Elder 65) 

SUBS NOT USED: Pearson, Sharpe, King 

GOALS: Panayiotou 30, Blyth pen 32, Dawson 70, Dodoo 81, 90 

SHREWSBURY: C. Burton, Carpenter, Richards, Fletcher, Smith (c), D. Burton, Easthope, Flint, Hickman, Anderson, Ginnelly 

SUBS: Watkins, Rowley, Ryan, Ashton, Jones 

GOAL: Hickman 74 

REFEREE: Paul Evans