Wilson earns ten-man Town a late draw
A late equaliser from substitute Jordan Wilson earned ten-man Shrewsbury Town a point against Preston North End in the Youth Alliance – North West fixture on Saturday.The striker came on to level the score to 3-3 in the 82nd minute after Town’s Under-18s had played the majority of the game a man down, due to midfielder Alex Fletcher’s sending off.
FIRST HALF
Town’s head of academy coaching, Ian Dawes, made three changes to the side which played in the youth team’s last competitive game – a 4-1 win at Burton Albion in the Youth Alliance Cup North.
First-year goalkeeper Harry Lewis was out due to injury, so in came Shaun Rowley after being recalled from his loan spell at Watford.
The other changes saw defender Ryan Hickman and another trialist come into the back four.
Town made a positive start and took the lead on ten minutes when striker Ethan Jones burst down the left and hit a low centre towards Tom King in the box, who calmly sent the ball into the roof of the net.
Three minutes later, however, North End won a penalty when Eddie Dsane burst in behind the Shrews’ defence and was tackled from behind by Fletcher – although the latter appeared to win the ball with his tackle.
Fletcher was also shown a red card following the incident, and Dsane fired the penalty into the bottom left corner to add further insult to injury and level for the visitors.
Nick Harrison’s side then took the lead themselves in the 22nd minute, when wide midfielder Luke Pritchard went on a lung-busting run through the centre of the field before going around Rowley and tapping into the empty net.
Town looked to fight back after going behind and King saw a free-kick, right of centre, parried away by goalkeeper Ross Dalton.
It was an uphill task for the ten men as they chased the ball, with North End looking to dominate the possession, but Town earned a penalty in the 43rd minute for a push in the box on striker Kaiman Anderson.
King stepped up to send the resulting spot-kick into the bottom right corner, sending Dalton the wrong way to equalise, and it remained level at the break.
HALF-TIME: Shrewsbury Town 2-2 Preston North End
Preston retook the lead just two minutes after the restart as Jonathon Lunney's corner was eventually converted by Lilywhites captain Bradley Roscoe, after Dsane and Joshua Sampson had both had stabs at the ball.
The young Shrews were unfortunate not to level once again in the 52nd minute as Joe Kenton beat his marker on the right and crossed for fellow midfielder King, but the latter was unable to keep his header underneath the crossbar after leaping up.
At the other end, Pritchard slid an effort into the near side netting for the visitors from the right.
Town never gave up despite their disadvantage of being a man down and duly deserved their equaliser in the 82nd minute, when Wilson came in onto his right foot outside the box and blasted the ball low into the bottom left corner.
And neither side could go on to find a winner, with Town seeing the game out to take a point.
FULL-TIME: Shrewsbury Town 3-3 Preston North End
TOWN LINE-UP: Shaun Rowley (GK); Ryan Hickman, Trialist (Joel Carta), Jeff Watkins (c), Ben Burton, Niall Flint, Joe Kenton (George Hassall), Alex Fletcher, Tom King (Jordan Wilson), Kaiman Anderson, Ethan Jones.
UNUSED SUBS: Ryan Goldston (GK), Nathan Millis.
GOALS: King (10’, 43’), Wilson (82’).
SENT OFF: Fletcher (14’).
PRESTON LINE-UP: Ross Dalton (GK); Clive Smith, Sean Whelan, Bradley Roscoe (c), Joshua Sampson, Harry Hagon, Jonathon Lunney, Bradley Wicks (Adam Robinson), Eddie Dsane, James Boyd (James Quigley), Luke Pritchard (Ben Roberts).
UNUSED SUBS: James Bullock (GK), Lamin Jagne.
GOALS: Dsane (14’), Pritchard (22’), Roscoe (47’).
NEXT FIXTURE: Liverpool FC Academy Under-17s v Town (Friendly, Wednesday 15 October).
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