Stoke City victorious against Carlisle in Checkatrade trophy

Stoke City U21s emerged victorious at the end of a hard-fought victory over League 2 team Carlise United, the result means Stoke City U21s will move to the next round of the Checkatrade Trophy. This was a good opportunity for Stoke City fans to see the future o the club as fans flocked to Brunton Ground. The likes of Tyrese Campbell, Josh Tymon, Simranjit Thandi and Harry Souttar played well enough to suggest that the future for Stoke City is bright while Sam Clucas continued his injury comeback playing the full ninety minutes against Carlise.

The young Potters team had started well playing in a 4-5-1 against their much more experienced opponents controlling possession well but lacked the incision and precision in the final third to really make the Carlise defence worry. The Potters had the first chance of the game when Shenton controlled the ball in the penalty area and it seemed like Liddle of Carlise stuck an arm to prevent young Shenton from running through on goal, the Stoke City youngster appealed for handball but the referee waved the appeals away, indeed even the Carlise supporters thought it was handball.

Stoke City continued their fine start with Clucas playing on the left-hand side of the five-man midfield crossing the ball into the six-yard box only for the cross to just evade Tyrese Campbell. So, it was a surprise when Carlise took the lead, although there was nothing Dániel Gyollai in the Stoke City goal as Sowerby with no one in the red and white shirts of Stoke City struck the ball ever so sweetly form 25 yards as flew in off the underside of the ball. The goal sucked the momentum and confidence of the Stoke City youngsters as a defensive mix up nearly gave Carlise a second goal with Gyollai out of position, Hope chipped over. That miss proved to be fatal for Carlise as not soon after Tyrese Campbell powered a header from Thandi’s cross.

There was one last piece of action before the penalty shootout with Jones of Carlise hitting a dangerous shot that narrowly went wide and so the game went into a penalty shootout. Miller’s shot was palmed away by Gyollai in the penalty shootout before Shenton scored for Stoke to conclude a memorable night for the Stoke City U21s.