A youthful Derby County Under-18s side put in an excellent team performance as they defeated Wolverhampton Wanderers 5-1 on Saturday morning at Moor Farm Training Centre in the Under-18 Premier League - North.

Under-18 Lead Coach Danny Maye’s side netted with five separate goalscorers as strikes from James Ward, Justin Oguntolu and Charlie Smith in the first half and Dantel Hodges and Zayne Blake in the second half secured the three points.

The Rams came into the game buoyed by a dominant 4-0 triumph over Fulham in the Premier League Cup three days beforehand.

Key Moments

A fast start from Derby saw them take the lead in the fifth minute. It was a brilliant team move - starting from goalkeeper Harley Price, as he played a lovely cross-field pass to George Stokes, who played it into Oguntolu. He dropped it dead for Dantel Hodges to cross to Ward, who was on hand to volley home at the back post.

Wolves equalised 12 minutes later as Min-Kyu Ji headed home from close range, but Derby regained the lead in the 29th minute as Ward turned provider, squaring it for Oguntolu who made no mistake.

It was then Oguntolu’s time to turn to assist, as he played a lovely dinked through ball to Smith, who slotted past George Hardy in the Wolves goal to make it 3-1 going into the half-time break.

The Rams continued their brilliant performance in the second half, as the ball fell kindly for Hodges in the area, and he took a touch before taking aim and firing into the bottom corner to make it 4-1.

The fifth and final goal came in the 78th minute as Sean Corry’s shot was saved but fell straight into the path of Blake, who had the simple task of tapping home into an empty net.

Attention now turns to next Saturday when the Under-18s make the trip up to Middlesbrough and look to make it back-to-back wins in league action (12:30pm kick-off).

Post-Match Reaction

Under-18 Lead Coach Danny Maye was delighted with his young side's performance, as a lot of regular Under-18s players made the step up for the Under-21s for their clash with Leeds United.

He said: “The team performance was excellent which shows the thread that runs through the Academy - we had three Under-16s and two Under-17s come into the side and pick everything up really quickly.

“That’s exactly how it should be; if the lads play well they deserve an opportunity and everybody took theirs today.”

Maye was particularly pleased with the mentality shown after being pegged back by a Wolves equaliser.

He explained: “It was important we didn’t change the way we played once they scored - we didn’t start going long, there were times when we were a bit passive, but we got better as the game went on and it was a real dominant performance in the end.”

On the brilliant opening goal, Maye said: “We’ve done that all season - we always say we want to dominate the ball, but most importantly do something with it - it has to end in something.

“The lads at the back built well, the midfielders did well receiving the ball under pressure and our forward movement was brilliant, which sometimes goes unnoticed, but Wardy’s run for his goal was a great example of that.”

Words: Will Stanier