FA Youth Cup set for West Midlands derby day
Albion will travel to Villa for an FA Youth Cup semi-final next month after both clubs came through last eight ties on Tuesday night.
While Villa cruised to a thumping 6-1 win at Newcastle in their quarter-final, the Baggies youngsters came from behind against Everton to earn a 2-1 win at The Hawthorns.
The hosts were deserved winners over the 90 minutes but did it the hard way after falling behind to Stanley Mills’ goal for the Toffees early in the second half.
That sparked the Baggies, who had earlier gone close when Jovan Malcolm forced a save from goalkeeper Zan-Luk Leban.
They quickly drew level when Rico Richards was alert to follow-up and score after Leban had again denied Malcolm.
Zac Ashworth then got what proved to be the winner soon after, finishing off a fine team move. Everton pushed hard in the closing stages, with Baggies goalkeeper Max Boruc saving superbly from Thierry Small to prevent extra-time.
Villa, 9-0 winners over Burton in the previous round, found the going far less nervy as they breezed into the last four thanks to an excellent performance at St James’s Park, with Carney Chukwuemeka bagging a hat-trick.
The young Lions could hardly have made a better start, surging into a 2-0 lead inside the opening eight minutes.
Defender Paul Appiah made the breakthrough after just 67 seconds when he headed home from a corner. Brad Young then doubled the advantage, taking down a perfectly weighted pass from Arjan Raikhy before firing into the net for his 14th goal of the season.
Just prior to the half-hour mark the highly-rated Chukwuemeka made it 3-0, taking collection of a short corner and then breezing into the box before sending a curling finish into the far corner.
Josh Scott pulled one back on the stroke of half-time but it proved a mere consolation as Chukwuemeka scored twice more to complete his treble, before setting up substitute Kahrel Reddin to complete the rout. A date for the semi-final will be confirmed in the coming days.
