U18s: Aston Villa 1-0 Crystal Palace

Aston Villa secured their first Under-18 Premier League win of the campaign on Saturday, beating Crystal Palace 1-0 at Bodymoor Heath.

Josh Blake’s goal on the stroke of half-time secured all three points for Richard Beale’s Young Lions, who had opened their campaign with three successive draws.

Victory sees them remain unbeaten across their three league outings thus far, as they climbed to eighth in the Under-18 Premier League South table.

An exciting, end-to-end opening period saw both sides exchange turns at testing one another, controlling the ball and creating opportunities to score.

It was Beale’s boys who started the brighter, with Blake testing visiting goalkeeper Lucca Benetton inside five minutes before Markie Meade’s goal was chalked off after he was adjudged to have fouled Palace defender Remi Shittu when robbing him of possession.

Meade was causing the South London side issues, and after firing over from a decent position, saw another effort ruled out midway through the opening period, heading home from a well-worked corner routine only to be denied by the offside flag.

Javier Alonso’s side carried a threat of their own, and almost immediately after falling behind, they went within inches of drawing first blood themselves. Donte Martin drove at the home defence, cutting inside and shooting, but his effort took a wicked deflection off Lennon Melhuish, looping it onto the underside of the crossbar and down and somehow staying out.

Chances continued to come at both ends at half-time approached. Ajean-Ray Greaves stung the palms of Villa ‘keeper Theo Houston from the edge of the area, before Blake turned over a decent cross from Oscar Johnson inside the six-yard area and Jamar Lee could only steer his effort over the bar with the goal at his mercy.

In the first minute of stoppage time in the opening period, however, the deadlock had finally been broken, as Blake atoned for his miss moments earlier. A neat through pass from Johnson released captain Ollie Bindley. He unselfishly squared for Blake who stroked into the back of the net to give his side the lead at the half.

The second 45 kept the same intensity as a breathless opening period, though the creation of clear-cut chances proved more limited in the pouring Bodymoor rain. Martin flashed an effort wide for the Eagles after Greaves had again been denied by Houston at the beginning of the half.

Jayden McDonald’s introduction gave Palace an extra attacking spark as they desperately sought an equaliser with time ticking away. The forward called Houston into a fingertip save before he was denied a leveller three minutes from time by the offside flag, as Villa held on for all three points ahead of next Saturday’s trip to the capital to face Brentford (September 5, 12pm ko).