Reading take advantage as Young Shrimpers suffer cup-winning hangover in pre-season friendly

The teenage Shrimpers came into the match on the back of two victories against Academy opposition to claim the Cars4All Trophy at the weekend, and Head of Youth Ricky Duncan acknowledged that a further fixture against a similar level of opposition just three days later had contributed to the one-sided scoreline.

“We just ran out of legs at the end of the game; the players were unable to compete physically or mentally after going behind,” he said. “With hindsight, this was a game too far for us, playing three Academy sides in five days, and Reading are one of the top Academies in the country too. We ended up sitting too deep and inviting pressure on to ourselves.”

Blues were without Anthony Furlonge, who was ruled out through injury, whilst Louis Baucutt suffered a knock to his ankle inside the first quarter of the match, leaving Duncan to reflect: “It was a big loss to us with Anthony not being able to play and Louis getting injured, but we got the chance to take a look at some of the first year scholars, and we also gave lads like Mitchell [Pinnock] and Marlon [Agyakwa] a lengthy run out. We’ll now sit down and look at the lessons we have learned from today ahead of Saturday.”

Luke Chambers returned to the squad after missing the Cars4All Trophy on international duty with Wales Under-17s and, on ten minutes, he produced an excellent double save to reach a low shot at full-stretch before smothering the follow-up. Play immediately switched to the other end where Jack Paxman’s reverse pass was chipped into the gloves of the goalkeeper by Seedy Njie.

After 13 minutes Michael Hyland went close for the visitors as he exchanged a one-two with Njie before sending an angled drive narrowly wide of the left-hand upright, and Blues confirmed their movement into the ascendancy just before the quarter-hour mark when Mitchell Pinnock’s first-time volley was pushed onto the crossbar by the Reading ‘keeper.

The Royals continued to threaten sporadically, and Chambers again had to be alert to push out a close-range shot before leaping acrobatically to tip a 20-yard effort over the bar. When he was eventually beaten, on 32 minutes, Robert Hyams was well-positioned on the goal-line to put a forward off of his header, which drifted wide.

Three minutes later, Southend deservedly took the lead in the lively encounter. Aaron Tatham, switched to the centre of defence after Baucutt’s injury, brought the ball away from the penalty area before offloading to Jack Payne. The talented midfielder was dispossessed, but Ryan Auger stepped in to win it back and switched the play with a searching ball into the path of Pinnock, who chested down 15 yards from goal before firing into the bottom right-hand corner of the net.

Lyle Della-Verde came close to adding a second after an unlikely burst took him between two defenders, only for the ‘keeper to push the ball into the side-netting, and it was Reading who scored next, equalising two minutes before half-time when a forward pounced on a downward header from a corner to hook his shot past Chambers.

Njie smashed a 30-yard shot over within ten seconds of the second period starting, but the hosts took a decisive lead in the 54th minute. Two substitutes combined before a left-footed effort was drilled between replacement custodian Andres Pascoe and his near post. Sixty seconds later, Pascoe managed to get his hand to a cleanly-struck shot from ten yards, but he could not prevent the ball from nestling in the bottom right-hand corner.

Only a last-ditch tackle from a defender prevented James Pinnock from latching onto Njie’s through-ball but, when Blues were not in possession, they found it ever more difficult to contain Reading, who made it 4-1 in the 64th minute when an unstoppable finish was thwacked past Pascoe from 22 yards out.

Pascoe had his hands stung by another effort within a minute of that goal, but he was powerless as a Reading sub completed a 12-minute hat-trick midway through the half with a sweetly-struck shot from besides the penalty spot.

Four minutes later, Australian trialist Pascoe prevented the same player from adding his fourth, only for another Reading teenager to beat Hyams to the loose ball and lash it into the roof of the net, whilst a clinical finish from a left-wing centre and a lofted strike from a right-wing cross meant that a second young Royals talent notched a hat-trick admist the 8-1 scoreline.

To their credit Southend continued to press forwards when they could, and trialist Shamir Mullings could have netted twice immediately after coming on, first with a header from an Agyakwa corner that he directed just over and then when he failed to connect cleanly with a Della-Verde cross.

However, neither chance was taken and, as Auger twice went close from distance, Southend were left to look back on an impressive opening 50 minutes before focussing on the weekend’s opponents, Nike Football Academy at Loughborough University.

Southend United U18s: Luke Chambers (Andres Pascoe 46), Aaron Tatham, Robert Hyams, Michael Hyland (Lyle Della-Verde 26), Louis Baucutt (Harry Jeffrey 22), Michael Hassini, Jack Paxman (Elliott 74), Ryan Auger, Seedy Njie (Shamir Mullings 78), Jack Payne (James Pinnock 56), Mitchell Pinnock (Marlon Agyakwa 59).