U18s: Fleetwood Town 1-3 Shrewsbury Town
- Shrews turn the game around in five second-half minutes
- Ginnelly scores either side of a goal from Jones
- Dawes' side make it three straight league wins
A brace for Josh Ginnelly and one from Ethan Jones - within five second-half minutes - wrapped up the win for Ian Dawes' side at Lytham Cricket Club.
Ginnelly threatened the hosts throughout and provided the difference as the Shrews had to come back from a goal behind to win after Louis Myers scored in the 67th minute.
Having fallen behind, the young Shrews responded in expert fashion and were level just four minutes later with Ginnelly grabbing his first of the afternoon from the edge of the area.
Jones, on his return from injury, then put Shrewsbury ahead two minutes afterwards by finishing precisely into Elliott Wynne’s bottom corner from 20 yards out having been teed up by Kaiman Anderson, who despite not scoring led the line well.
And Ginnelly wrapped up the scoring with 76 minutes played when Jones was again involved, this time turning provider.
He fizzed the ball across the Fleetwood six-yard box, leaving Ginnelly with the simple task of tapping in to complete the scoring and cap a sensational five minutes comeback.
Ginnelly and Jones were instrumental throughout for the Shrews, testing Wynne in the Fleetwood goal a number of times before finding a way past him.
The first half may have ended goalless but it was hardly due to the lack of trying, with the two goalscorers having a flurry of efforts on goal within the opening quarter of an hour.
The attempts they did though have were restricted to being from range and were more or less straight at the Fleetwood goalkeeper.
The hosts grew into the game as the first half wore on and went close from a couple of Conor Smith corners with Myers involved in both.
Myers then grabbed his reward for some tireless running chasing down a long ball into the right channel before finishing past Shaun Rowley with the help of the post.
How the youngsters responded, though, will have pleased head of academy coaching Dawes as they went on the front foot and pressed hard to get back into the game and were not behind for long.
Ginnelly’s brace, either side of a Jones effort, sealed the win following an emphatic response with the team taking just nine minutes to turn the game on its head.
NEXT FIXTURE: Preston North End v Shrewsbury Town (Youth Alliance - North West league, Saturday 3 January, Springfields Training Ground, 11am kick-off).
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