York City (U18s) 1-0 Hyde United (U18s)

York City (U18s) 1-0 Hyde United (U18s)

FA Youth Cup Third Qualifying Round

Friday 14th October 2022

Eleven cards (10 yellow, 1 red), a mass brawl just before half-time, a referee who threatened to lose the plot and over 100 minutes of football under the floodlights on a crap pitch.

This FA Youth Cup Third Qualifying Round tie was pretty eventful!

Oh, and Jake McLoughlin also scored the only goal as York City triumphed 1-0, which means they’ll now play Rochdale away in the First Round on a date yet to be confirmed.

Ironically, this Hyde side ‘doubles up’ as Rochdale’s shadow youth squad (hence lots of Rochdale tracksuits dotted around the ground), so at least the weird prospect of an ‘Actual Scholars vs Shadow Scholars’ tie has been avoided.

Hyde gave an okay account of themselves on a surface which was bad, bobbly and made it difficult for players to get the ball under control at times. The visitors played some teasing deliveries into the box, especially from the left-wing, during the early exchanges but they lacked a cutting edge infront of goal which partly proved to be their downfall.

The referee wasted no time in making his mark on the game as Tom Algar was penalised for a push on Hyde’s No.3 (which bore a striking resemblance to Paolo Di Canio’s infamous shove on Paul Alcock) inside five minutes. Both players were yellow carded - with more than a few asking why the Hyde kid was punished.

York’s George Harrison was a constant threat driving forward with the ball yet when he did just that and fired harmlessly over from 35 yards on 15 minutes, he earned what can only be described as a b*llocking from Tim Ryan who, rightly, pointed out the shot was never on. It was a waste but, otherwise, Harrison played well.

Harry Burland was also thwarted due to an important block inside the box from Hyde’s No.6 who, himself, was unlucky soon afterwards to not create anything with a decent long ball forward. The yellow-shirted No.7 also shot over and as what was quite a scrappy game swung back and forth, Hyde’s ‘keeper was tested for the first time when he had to parry away Algar’s teasing corner, right underneath his own crossbar, under pressure from Kieran Clayton.

Hyde’s No.3 (already on a yellow card) was warned a few times by the referee for being a little bit too ‘handsy’ under pressure and, on 36 minutes, the third yellow card of the night was brandished to another Hyde player who he judged to be persistently fouling.

It was harsh - and certainly inflamed some of the visiting contingent who exchanged words (with the referee even swearing back) before the inevitable happened from the resulting set-piece.

Two Hyde players slipped just as the ball was floated into the box and it duly dropped for McLoughlin who had the relatively straightforward task of slotting it past the 'keeper; 1-0 - and a whole heap of more anger, annoyance and verbals directed towards the referee.

That passage of play meant it was now a ticking time bomb as to when things would kick-off properly between the two sets of players (and even amongst some of those watching on) and, two minutes later, the explosion finally happened. 

Following a late tackle by a Hyde player high up the pitch, the No.9 got involved in an altercation where everyone 'piled in' for the subsequent melee. The downside of being stood 50 yards away was that it wasn't easy to notice who did what, etc, but when it all calmed down, the referee dished out FIVE yellow cards - including one to a Hyde player who didn't actually get involved and was stood just minding his own business on the halfway line.

Perhaps the referee just didn't like him, who knows, but that incident took the spice out of things for a good while thereafter and there wasn't really much else that happened until 20 minutes after half-time when Hyde's 'keeper got himself into trouble with his feet, coming outside his box and fouling a York attacker as he lost possession of the ball and 'lunged in'.

It could have been a red card but the 'keeper escaped with a yellow - thus becoming the ninth player to be scribbled down in the notebook and, as is often fate in football, he pulled off a decent save from Ben Myers’ near-post effort from the resulting set-piece.

Gradually, the game got its 'edge' and intensity back. The quality still wasn't there due to the bobbly surface that was wrecking rather than aiding moves, and there was quite a bit of 'hit and hope' stuff from both teams but the endeavour and effort couldn't be faulted.

York needed a second goal to ease their nerves and almost got it when Clayton had a goalbound shot blocked by Hyde’s No.2 after some excellent build-up play and a cut-back by Alex Hernandez. Clayton also headed over just inside the last quarter-of-an-hour after Harrison teased the Hyde defence and provided a near-post delivery.

The referee hit ‘double figures’ for yellow cards around this time but, to their credit, Hyde kept plucking away and almost conjured up an equaliser in the 87th minute when No.9 (just about their best player) latched onto a ball and looped his effort over an oncoming Michael Hogan, only for a covering defender to make a vital goal-line clearance.

Hyde’s No.3 was finally red carded soon afterwards as he purposely brought down Harrison to stop a counter-attack - and a combination of that, plus three or four players needing treatment during the second half, resulted in over 10 minutes of injury-time being played as the Minstermen were forced to manage the game and run the clock down.

They did enough and the celebrations when the whistle was sounded showed how much it meant and they’ll now travel to Rochdale in Round One as underdogs, hoping to pull off a cup shock.

York’s Jake McLoughlin will claim the plaudits as it was his goal which ultimately settled the tie, Michael Hogan will be pleased with a clean-sheet, but the ‘Man Of The Match’ was certainly George Harrison. Apart from that shot, he was good with his feet on multiple occasions, direct, didn’t lose the ball when he had it, got his marker wanting to swap shirts with him after only 30 seconds (considering how much shirt pulling was going on) and he just left a really good impression. 

On a decent pitch I'm sure he would have caused more problems and it’ll be interesting to see how he does in Round One at Rochdale where, in theory, the surface should be better.

I didn’t get a team-sheet for Hyde (hence a lack of names attributed to numbers). It wasn’t to be for them on this night but they’ve still given a good account of themselves to get this far in the competition and within a whisker of the First Round.

York: Michael Hogan, Jake McLoughlin, Williams Edenene, Tom Algar, Nathan Heaton, Ben Myers, George Harrison, Billy Gordon, Kieran Clayton, Max Ezard, Harry Burland. Subs: Craig Magwere, Tom Pickles, Alex Payne, Alex Hernandez, Harley Dawson, Bill Marshall, Charlie Lumsden.