U18s: Man City 5-2 Aston Villa

Aston Villa opened their Under-18 Premier League Cup campaign with a 5-2 defeat at Manchester City.

Villa found themselves 2-0 down before Taylor-Jay Hart’s superb 17^th-minute solo effort and Kahrel Reddin’s fine finish shortly afterwards levelled matters midway through the first half.

City restored their advantage on the stroke of half-time to cap an entertaining opening period, before the hosts scored twice after the restart to run out winners on Saturday afternoon.

Villa find themselves in the same Premier League Cup group as City, Liverpool and Crystal Palace.

The Young Lions get back to Under-18 Premier League South action on Saturday with a trip to Reading.

Adedire Mebude opened the scoring for City with a low finish early on, a lead that was doubled by Dan Ogwuru’s close-range finish after 16 minutes.

But Villa reduced the deficit just a minute later courtesy of an excellent surging run and finish from Hart, in which he carried the ball from near the centre circle to the edge of City's penalty area before finding the far corner with a low right-footed finish.

And it was 2-2 in the 24^th minute when Reddin latched on to Dewain Sewell’s throughball to drill an angled finish beyond City goalkeeper George Murray-Jones.

However, the home side retook the lead just before the break courtesy of Jadel Katongo’s finish.

Nico O’Reilly made it 4-2 in the 52nd minute, tapping home after Joel Ndala’s strike had rebounded off the crossbar.

And substitute Luca Barrington rounded off the scoring to ensure City took the spoils.