Derby County’s Under-18s were summoned to their fourth defeat of the campaign on Saturday afternoon with a 6-1 loss at home to Manchester City.
After a disappointing result against Sunderland last week, where they were beaten 3-0, Adam Robinson’s side were hoping to get back to winning ways this time out but unfortunately, it was not to be for the young Rams at Moor Farm Training Ground.
It took City just two minutes to open the scoring as forward Josh Adam converted tidily from close range.
Just three minutes later, City doubled their lead through Luca Barrington who slotted the ball home at the back post after some neat build-up play.
In the 13th minute, Adedire Mebude made it 3-0 to the away side when a quick counter-attack caught the young Rams off guard and Mebude made no mistake in tucking his low side-footed shot away.
After a frustrating first 15 minutes, Robinson’s men slowly began to find their way into the game as they pressed City higher up the pitch and won the ball in some much more positive areas.
Derby’s Bayo Fapetu started getting hold of the ball in midfield and was the catalyst in driving the Rams up the pitch on a handful of occasions.
With 40 minutes on the clock, Derby created their best chance of the half.
Marko Borkovic whipped in a lovely free-kick from the right flank which fell straight on Darren Robinson’s head, but he just couldn’t direct his effort past Josh McNamara in the City net.
As the first half came to a close, Derby had just started settling into the game as they began asking more questions of the City defence.
Just as the young Rams began to find their feet, they were hit with a sucker punch just 10 minutes into the second half as Adam notched his second of the afternoon with a low finish at the near post.
In the 60th minute, the visitors made it 5-0 after another move down the right-hand side resulted in the ball falling kindly for Adam who was five yards out and easily tapped the ball home for his hat-trick.
Just one minute later, Derby were rewarded for their tenacity and persistence when Carlos Richards expertly whipped the ball into the top right-hand corner to make it 5-1.
In what was an extremely frantic, fast-paced affair, City added their sixth and final goal of the game in the 75th minute.
Adam was again the scorer to take his tally to four for the afternoon.
Harvey Randle made some exceptional saves for Derby which prevented City from pulling away even further and the young Rams stuck together throughout against an impressive City outfit.
Up next in the Under-18 Premier League - North for Robinson’s side is an away trip to Burnley on Saturday 23rd October (1pm kick-off) in which they will look to pick up what will be a very important three points.
Before then, the Rams’ Under-18s are at Blackburn Rovers in their second Premier League Cup group fixture on Saturday 16th October (12:30pm kick-off) as they look to build on their 1-1 draw at home to Reading last month.
Derby County Under-18s: Randle (GK), Brailsford, Moloney (Hawkins), Robinson, Christie, Cox, Borkovic (Dixon), Fapetu, Richards, Sebegabo, Ebiowei (Moore).
Substitutes Not Used: Evans, Eze.
Words: Louie Barrett