Reading U18s have progressed into Round Four of the FA Youth Cup with a dramatic penalty shootout win over Middlesbrough.
The young Royals needed spot kicks to reach this stage, beating Cheltenham Town after a 2-2 draw, and history repeated itself on Wednesday night (December 3) against Boro.
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Joseph Roberts scored early in the second half but George Edmundson converted past his own goalkeeper minutes later to equalise for Harrison Gilkes’ side.
George Booth scored what looked to be a winner five minutes into extra-time but Logan Martin headed past Toby Borgnis two minutes into stoppage time at the end.
The New Zealand youth international would make two saves in the shootout and substitute Da’Jarne Martin-Grant would be the hero, converting the winning spotkick.
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Reading started strong and on the front foot, creating a couple of notable half-chances as Tyler Adjei proved a tricky customer for the Boro backline.
Tyler Adjei had the first effort of the match, but the forward could only skew his shot wide after Scofield Lonmeni-Dekam had his powerful strike blocked by the head of a defender.
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15 minutes later, he did force a save out of Oliver Lloyd between the sticks for the visitors, but it was held well.
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Cruz Ibeh had the best two chances of the half. First, Toby Borgnis saved well after Lucca Kakai fed the striker on the edge of the box and he managed to get a powerful strike on target. Less than 10 minutes later, Cruz Ibeh misses a cross from the middle of the penalty box, Joseph Roberts firing wide as it reached him at the back post.
Stop-start with a couple of delays for injuries, Kallum Fuller-Thompson had the final shot of the half but his attempt from the edge of the box was well saved by Toby Borgnis.
It took just five minutes for the second half to burst into life and for the first goal of the evening, falling the way of the visitors.
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Joseph Roberts fired one wide in the first period but made no mistake at the beginning of the second, cutting in and finding the bottom corner before wheeling away to celebrate with his teammates.
Boro had the lead for all of three minutes, however, as his teammate Logan Edmundson spectacularly fired past his own goalkeeper in an attempt to halt Kallum Fuller-Thompson’s run on goal and equalise for the Royals.
Chances were few and far between following the explosive start to the half, both sides lacking the crucial final pass to unlock the defence.
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Kallum Fuller-Thompson nearly stole the winner late on but he could not quite meet the superb cross from George Booth at the back post with three minutes remaining.
He could have done it again with the last kick of the game, this time sending a mis-hit strike at the goalkeeper as the referee signalled extra-time.
As with the second half, the goal action came early in proceedings during extra time as George Booth broke clear of the Boro defence and slotted past Oliver Lloyd to complete the turnaround.
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Toby Borgnis made one save in the first period but was not troubled as Boro skipper Isaac Greenup sent a looping effort goalbound from distance.
Tempers flared as D’Nayo Hunte was taken out on a counter-attack, the referee opting to pull it back for the free-kick instead of allowing a promising advantage.
Toby Borgnis had to be alert to palm Oliver Martin’s free-kick wide of the posts in the second half of extra time, Boro battling hard to get back on level terms and force penalties.
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Ultimately they did just that as Logan Martin snuck in at the back post to head past Toby Borgnis to take the tie to penalties.
Borgnis, returning from the Under-17 World Cup with New Zealand, made two saves and Da’Jarne Martin-Grant scored the winner after 13 penalties, progressing 7-6 on spot-kicks.
Reading: Borgnis, St Louis (Heywood), Cliff (Dove), Booth, Beacroft, Irish, Ntege (Zie), Dekam, Fuller-Thompson, Ntege (Hunte), Adjei (Martin-Grant)
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Middlesbrough: Lloyd, McPartland (Haselhurst), Smith, Edmundson, Martin, Greenup, Harrison, Jones, Ibeh (Wager), Kakai, Roberts
Goals: Robert (Boro, 51) Edmundson (Reading OG, 54) Booth (Reading, 95) Martin (122)
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source uk.sports.yahoo.com ’
