Gloucester City U18s produce five star display to advance in the FA Youth Cup

Gloucester City U18s romped past Cribbs in the Preliminary Round of the FA Youth Cup, advancing through with a 5-0 victory on Friday night.

Goals from Jakson Thomas-Phillips, Henry Driver-Dickerson and Lewis Vye saw the hosts lead 3-0 at the break, before Sam Sullivan and Zak Pinchard added efforts in the second half.

City will now host Street in the First Qualifying Round at New Meadow Park the week commencing 15 September.

Josh Taylor’s side kick start their Cheltenham Youth Floodlit League before then, with a home game against Cirencester Town next Friday night.

The game itself started with the hosts taking 10 minutes or so to settle down and stick to their task, but once they did, it was one way traffic.

City took the lead on 12 minutes, when Lewis Vye beat his man down the left, before crossing for Jakson Thomas-Phillips to head in off his shoulder.

One nearly became two within moments, but Vye fired over after good work from Lewis Chance – before Vye had an effort blocked from a free kick.

From the resulting corner, the ball was headed up into the air and after Cribbs keeper Ashby Turner spilled the ball, Henry Driver-Dickerson was on hand to turn home.

Driver-Dickerson fired over on 27 minutes, after yet more good work from right back Lewis Chance, with the impressive Zak Pinchard nearly assisting for Vye, who blasted straight at Turner after being found with a cross.

But Vye would get his goal and it came from a quick long throw by Callum Tye, with Vye dribbling into the box and smashing past Turner.

Gloucester should have gone into half time even further ahead, but Driver-Dickerson fired straight at Turner after great work from Tye, before Pinchard’s cross was just about smothered away from Tye.

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Cribbs were much more settled after the restart and Toby Lovejoy had two really good chances to reduce arrears, but he saw his first chance smothered away by the recovering City defenders, before Lovejoy then headed wide from a great Tom Howard cross.

But any slim chance the visitors had evaporated just after the hour mark when City skipper Sam Sullivan got in front of Turner to nod home from a corner.

Driver-Dickerson had a number of chances to add to the scoreline as the second half wore on, but cut a frustrating figure with multiple efforts off target.

But even as the hosts made changes they continued to dominate, with Arron Jenkins curling wide and Reshay Nembhard having an effort dragged just wide.

Man of the Match Pinchard rounded off the scoring with three minutes on the clock, as he cut back after getting on the end of a Henri Francis through ball, before smashing past Turner.

After the game Taylor spoke to Severn Sport about the performance, the next round against Street and the second year of the new era for Gloucester City U18s – you will be able to hear that chat on this weekend’s Buttee’s For Breakfast.

Gloucester City U18s: Chovanec, Chance, Tye, Warren, Sullivan, Bradburn, Kposowa, Thomas-Phillips, Pinchard, Vye, Driver-Dickerson

Subs: Jenkins, Baines, Townsend, Nembhard, Francis, Middleton

Cribbs U18s: Turner, Howard, Moody, Bennett, Palmer, Unumadu, Saho, Smith-Lawrence, Lovejoy, Scannell, Roberts

Subs: Kilgour, Henniker, Polena, Tyson, Domsa, Cummings, Holroyd

C Martin Roofing Man of the Match – Zak Pinchard (Gloucester City U18s)