National League Cup Group D<\/b><\/p>\n
Boston United 4 <\/b>(Grist 47\u2019, Donnelly 62\u2019, 90\u2019; Lankshear 65\u2019)<\/p>\n
Leeds United U21 0<\/b><\/p>\n
Boston: <\/b>Lovett (GK), Grist, Teale, Sloggett (C), Hill, John-Lewis (Donnelly 46\u2019), Hiwula (Norkett 63\u2019), Lankshear (Bradley 79\u2019), Richards (Coyle 75\u2019), Raikhy (Mills 46\u2019), Cropper. Subs not used:<\/b> Jones (GK), Ging.<\/p>\n
Leeds: <\/b>Mahady (GK), Firth (Dudley 74\u2019), Bird, Cresswell (C), Lopata-White (Howson 66\u2019), Enahoro-Marcus (Lienou 81\u2019), Chadwick, Pickles, Gray, Render, Brockie. Subs not used:<\/b> Ombang (GK), White, Pirie.<\/p>\n
Referee: <\/b>Alan Dale<\/p>\n
Venue: <\/b>The Jakemans Community Stadium<\/p>\n
Attendance: <\/b>830<\/p>\n
Leeds United Under-21s began their defence of the National League Cup with a defeat to Boston United at the Jakemans Community Stadium.<\/p>\n
Scott Gardner named a youthful side to start the encounter though could call upon Rory Mahady, Rhys Chadwick and Harry Gray following the trio\u2019s pre-season spent with the first-team squad.<\/p>\n
In sweltering heat in Lincolnshire, Mahady\u2019s services were required early on as the Scotland youth international parried Lenell John-Lewis\u2019 close-range header away from danger.<\/p>\n
The reigning champions went close themselves shortly afterwards as Coban Bird, fresh from signing a first professional deal this summer, did well to intercept and curled a dangerous strike narrowly past Rhys Lovett\u2019s far post.<\/p>\n
John-Lewis was lively up front for the hosts and almost had a sight of goal from inside the area however, under pressure from the retreating Alfie Cresswell and Reuben Lopata-White, the Pilgrims\u2019 attacker was unable to get a shot away.<\/p>\n
An amber shirt had to be alert as Leeds broke with pace approaching the hour mark. Gray had raced onto a clever chipped ball from Chadwick and crossed towards the onrushing Jacob Render at the back post before a Boston player stooped to head away.<\/p>\n
The game had grown into an open-ended affair and the home team looked certain to open the scoring following a scramble inside the area but Louis Enahoro-Marcus and Chadwick were on hand to charge down two point-blank-range opportunities.<\/p>\n
Moments prior to the break, Bird fizzed another powerful drive wide of the upright from distance before referee Alan Dale brought an entertaining opening period to a close.<\/p>\n
HALF TIME: Boston United 0-0 Leeds United U21<\/b><\/p>\n
Following a slight delay to the restart, Boston took the lead with defender Ben Grist tapping home from yards out after a deep free kick was whipped into the area. <\/p>\n
With the home side searching for a quickfire second, impressive defending from Lopata-White and Will Firth then diverted a well-struck Alex Lankshear effort away from danger.<\/p>\n
Jordan Richards then rushed onto a swirling delivery and powered a back-post header into the stand behind Mahady\u2019s goal.<\/p>\n
There was nothing the keeper could do to prevent the second arriving just after the hour mark as substitute Kieren Donnelly raced through and sent a delicate chip over Mahady and into the back of the net.<\/p>\n
Two quickly became three when Lankshear fired home from the edge of the area, leading to Gardner turning to experience as Jonny Howson was brought on for a maiden appearance since returning to the club in his new player-coach role.<\/p>\n
Chances came and went for both sides in the closing stages including a Render strike that sailed inches past the upright before Lankshear added a fourth with the final touch of the game. <\/p>\n
FULL TIME: Boston United 4-0 Leeds United U21<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"National League Cup Group D Boston United 4 (Grist 47\u2019, Donnelly 62\u2019, 90\u2019; Lankshear 65\u2019) Leeds United U21…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":339426,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8814],"tags":[748,393,4884,1860,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-339425","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leeds","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-leeds","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115017851047418894","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=339425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339425\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/339426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}