City through to Fourth Round after seven-goal thriller
Line-UpsExeter City: Keadell, Egan (captain), Down, Rogers, Grimes, Storey, Smallcombe (Hargreaves 90+1’), Merritt, Seymour (Rehemi 84’), Richards (Collins 80’), Rosenwald.
Subs not used: Williams, Hartridge.
Bolton Wanderers: Jääskeläinen, Everest, Lonsdale, Honeyball, Brockbank, Griffiths, White, Earing, Likoy-Elumba, Fearnley (Samizadeh 63’), McKenna (Palmer 66’).
Subs not used: Grivosti, Turner, Allen.
Goals:
Referee: Alan Berrow
Report
EXETER CITY progressed into the Fourth Round of the FA Youth Cup thanks to a seven-goal thriller victory over Bolton Wanderers at St James Park.
It was City who settled down the quickest as the first opportunity arose on five minutes. Frank Rosenwald latched onto Max Smallcombe’s long ball, which fell to Scott Merritt, who shot wide. Rosenwald again caused problems for the Bolton backline as another ball was pumped up, causing a bit of confusion in the defence and leading to goalkeeper Jääskeläinen smashing the ball against his own player for a throw-in.
City were on the front foot in the early exchanges, and good interplay between Ben Seymour and Merritt resulted in the latter’s shot being blocked by a stubborn defence. The home side created another chance shortly after as another long ball fell to Rosenwald, whose clever chip on the edge of the box didn’t quite make the goal. However the away side gradually came back into the match as Enock Likoy-Elumba sent a header over the bar before Daniel McKenna fancied his luck, but his rasping left-foot shot went just wide of Kavanagh Keadell’s goal.
It was end-to-end action as City’s Steve Rogers put in a dangerous but Smallcombe’s close-range shot was kept out by visiting goalkeeper Will Jääskeläinen. Wanderers then had a penalty appeal waved away by referee Alan Berrow as an entertaining first half concluded at 0-0.
HALF-TIME: EXETER CITY 0-0 BOLTON WANDERERS
The deadlock was finally broken on forty-nine minutes, when City’s Kyle Egan’s run and cross was expertly finished by Toby Down to put the home side 1-0 up. City then doubled their lead on fifty-four minutes as a mistake from Jääskeläinen was punished by a clever lob from Merrit. However, Bolton instantly replied as Cole Lonsdale’s deflected long-range strike beat Keadell in the City goal.
Then came a crazy twenty-minute ¬¬spell as the home side responded through Seymour, who was brought down for a penalty. The forward stepped up and placed the penalty into the bottom-right-hand corner to restore City’s two-goal lead on sixty-four minutes. But once again the pendulum swung, as Bolton pulled a goal back from substitute Tyrell Palmer’s controlled finish. To the astonishment of the home side, the away side got their equaliser on eighty-four minutes as Harry Brockbank scrambled the ball home from a corner to set up a fascinating finish.
Bolton were unable to force extra-time, though, as Mustafa Rehemi came off the bench to put a loose ball home from just off the six-yard line as City booked their place in the Fourth Round.
FULL-TIME: EXETER CITY 4-3 BOLTON WANDERERS
Attendance: 259
Man of the Match: Toby Down