Match Day Thread Pompey Academy 3 v 0 Plymouth Academy

Academy Ease To Plymouth Victory. Young Blues remain unbeaten in Youth Alliance League.

Pompey Academy continued their impressive start to the season with a 3-0 victory over Plymouth at Copnor Road.

Alfie Stanley had a chance to open the scoring after being fouled in the box by Carlo Garside, only to see Tyler Coombes save his spot-kick.

It was only a brief respite for the visitors, however, and Liam Kelly stole possession before firing home a left-footed strike from 30 yards.

And the Blues soon doubled their lead, as Charlie Bell and Stanley combined to tee-up young Irish striker Harry Anderson, who scored at the second attempt after his first shot had come back off the post.

Then, when the Argyle defence failed to deal with Eoin Teggart’s cross following the interval, Anderson spun to fire a third past Coombes.

Academy manager Mark Kelly said: “We started slowly and it was all a little bit scrappy – we weren’t taking care of the ball as well as we would have liked.

“However, we then started to find a pattern of play, countering quickly and managing to open the pitch up.

“Alfie’s penalty was saved, but we were moving the ball really well and pressing our opponents, which led to the opening goal from Liam.

“Some clever play then led to the second and we spoke at the break about wanting to see even more from the lads.

“They needed to play to a higher tempo and be more creative in possession – that’s exactly what happened when the second half started.

“There were a lot of connections all over the pitch, with Harry Kavanagh and Eoin getting on the outside and causing problems.

“We saw that with Eoin’s delivery for the third goal and by that point we were totally in control – we probably should have scored even more.

“Overall, though, it was nice to see what we had been asking for and the important thing now is too keep working hard.”

Pompey: Leon Pitman; Ethan Robb, Haji Mnoga, Liam Kelly; Harry Kavanagh, Gerard Storey (Harvey Rew 58), Charlie Bell, Eoin Teggart; Seok Jae Lee, Harry Anderson (Harrison Brook 61), Alfie Stanley