Albion Under-21s won their first-ever National League Cup match after beating Braintree Town 3-2 at the Rare Breed Meat Co. Stadium on Tuesday night.
The hosts twice took the lead through Tom Blackwell and Oli Davies, but the young Baggies showed resilience to force their way back into the encounter as Souleyman Mandey and Jamal Mohammed scored in either half to keep the visitors in their Group B tie.
And in the second minute of stoppage time, substitute Miller McDonald slammed in his team's third of the evening to secure the club's maiden win in the tournament against fifth-tier opposition.
Proceedings lacked pace and inventiveness during the early knockings in north Essex, but the hosts managed to string three quick passes together to break the deadlock - Blackwell getting behind the Albion defence to poke in the opener.
A positive reaction followed from the visitors, though, with Rio Parmar putting a golden chance wide and Jaiden Francis-Caesar rattling the side netting via a fierce volley following neat interplay around the 18-yard box.
Confidence slowly but surely built and evidence of that was exhibited on 36 minutes when the young Baggies equalised - powerful midfielder Mandey winning the ball back after a top slide tackle just outside the box, before receiving it back and netting impressively for 1-1.
It should’ve been even better for Downing’s troops heading in at the break too when Parmar intelligently cut the ball back to Francis-Caesar from three yards out in the centre of the goal.
Somehow, though, home goalkeeper Henry Gray got in the way of the young striker’s goal-bound attempt, meaning the scores were level at the halfway point.
While their improvement was clear for all to see, once again, Albion’s young charges found themselves behind minutes into the second period - forward Davis latching onto veteran substitute John Akinde’s right-wing cross and shooting over away shot-stopper Brian Okonkwo for the Iron’s second goal of the game.
No sooner had Braintree netted goal number two did they concede the same figure within moments, and it was a deserved goal for the academy hopefuls' efforts on the night as towering defender Mohammed controlled a deep free-kick inside the box and smashed the ball into the roof of the net to equalise again on 64 minutes.
As exchanges passed the 90-minute mark, it looked like a penalty shootout would decide this contest under the lights.
However, Mohammed and McDonald had other ideas, with the former advancing beyond his defensive duties into the opposing box to set up his substitute team-mate who smashed in a third to win the club's first match in the competition since entering it last season.
The result leaves Downing's men sixth in Group B on three points with one preliminary fixture left to play against Wealdstone on Tuesday, November 25 (ko 7pm)
Albion: Okonkwo, Maughan, Diomande, Mohammed, Humphries (c), Nelson, Crowther, Mandey, Parmar (McDonald 78), Bray (Ranger 72), Francis-Caesar (Ntege 78).
Substitutes: Brady, Letlat, Blackshields.
With thanks to Jon Weaver (Braintree Town) for use of the main photo.
