Albion Under-21s produced a convincing performance to beat Birmingham City in their Premier League 2 clash at Damson Park on Friday night.
Torin Ntege’s early strike gave the hosts a lead after three minutes, before substitute Jack Bray added a stellar showing to the attacking ranks - bagging a 19-minute hat-trick to put the three points beyond doubt.
The Baggies burst out of the blocks in Solihull - top-scorer Souleyman Mandey firing wide before Ntege made the most of a yard of space between him and his defender - hitting a cross into the box, which took a deflection - looping high over goalkeeper Will O’Sullivan to make it 1-0.
The hosts continued their pursuit of further strikes when Charlie Blackshields saw a deflected strike nestle the wrong side of the post and the resulting corner left Noah DuPont unmarked to head just over.
Blues mounted a brief response midway through the first half. Forward Aurelien Gurnier saw a strike go wide, while Trae Briscoe’s brave run from centre-back almost resulted in a goal - but his powerful effort didn’t worry Brian Okonkwo in the Albion goal.
After riding out a period of pressure, the hosts had another spell in the latter stages - during which Alfie Maughan had a shot saved by O’Sullivan and Remar McNeil made an attacking run too early and was ruled offside upon placing a calm finish into the net.
Goalkeeper Okonkwo made a smart stop just after the halfway mark, but it was the Baggies' young pros who made further headway. Substitute Bray raced beyond the Blues defence to arrow past the stranded O’Sullivan, who was helpless to stop the home team's second of the match.
But the Black Country hopefuls would soon notch their third, and it was Bray once again who contributed - finding space in the area before sweeping home into the bottom corner for 3-0.
A fourth came not long after when full-back Maughan sought out the forward once again, who made no mistake in tapping home from close range - claiming the match ball and. adding further shine to a magnificent display from Albion's youngsters.
Albion: Okonkwo; Nelson, Abudu, DuPont, Maughan (Letlat 82’); Mfuamba (Colesby 16’), Blackshields, Mandey; McNeil (Ranger 57’), Francis-Caesar (Bray 57’), Ntege (French 57’).
All photos with thanks to Addison Everiss / @addyp1x
