North End’s Under-21s off to winning start in Premier League Cup
North End manager Paul Heckingbottom and his assistant Stuart McCall were both in attendance at Highbury on Tuesday night when Ryan Taylor’s PNE Under-21s kicked off their Premier League Cup campaign with a 2-1 win over Fleetwood Town.
PNE fielded a strong line-up which included Andrew Moran, Andrija Vukcevic and Thierry Small as their three permitted over-age players.
However the accolade of being the oldest player on the pitch went to 35 year old Fleetwood Town full-back Danny Andrew, who was trying to build his fitness levels up after returning to the Fylde Coast from Exeter for a second spell in the summer.
Fleetwood began the game tentatively with PNE making their early dominance count, scoring an excellent opening goal when Harry Stringfellow picked the ball up on the 25-yard mark and unleashed a powerful drive which went into the top corner of the net.
In the 11th minute North End could have doubled their advantage when Moran was through on goal at the edge of the area but he fired his shot straight at former North End keeper James Pradic and the chance went begging.
The Cod Army then went upfield and equalised when Mohammed Oladiti turned on the edge of the area and drilled a low shot into the bottom corner of the net, which gave North End's 16-year-old keeper Will Pegrum – who was making his first appearance at U21 – level no chance of saving.
Six minutes before the interval, North End regained their lead when George Gryba did well in holding the ball up in the area and before laying it off for Max Wilson, who then blasted the ball past Pradic.
Fleetwood tried to come back almost straight away and Pegrum was called into action when he dived to palm the ball away after vicious, low cross which Vukcevic then headed away from the danger zone to concede a corner.
In the second half both sides found it hard to create clear-cut chances. PNEs best chance came 10 minutes into it when Ed Nolan sent a looping header over the bar after a brief period of pressure.
When Small, who had played for 69 minutes on the right wing, was substituted he fell foul of the new rule of not getting off the pitch fast enough which forced North End to play with 10 men for a minute while his replacement Troy Tarry waited patiently on the line.
Ribchester lad Pegrum did well again when he dived to hold a drive from Callum Costello.
In the last minute of the game, Clayton Lescott – who had switched from his normal midfield spot to play at centre-back in the same position as his ex England international dad Joleon who was watching on in the stand – made a decisive block in the area as PNE saw out the win.
However the main talking point from this game centered around a mass brawl seven minutes from time which began following an off the ball incident involving Vukcevic and Fleetwood's captain Costello.
Both players had been tugging on each others shirts and in the melee that followed, the already-substituted Small ran from the bench appearing to want to calm the situation down.
The referee took a different view on this and when everything had calmed down he showed Small a red card as well as sending Vukcevic and Costello off, forcing both sides to play out the remaining minutes with 10 men.