A strong Aston Villa U-18 side overpowered their Cardiff U-18 counterparts in a 3-1 win for the Villans on Saturday.

Cardiff had been forced to request that the fixture was switched from being blayed at Treforest due to bad weather, and made the trip to the Aston Villa academy pitches instead. City started the first half strongly and for the first fifteen minutes had a fair share of the play. From that point onwards Villa took control of the game and would take the lead before the break to make it 1-0.

It would not get any easier for the Bluebirds in the second half as they conceded two defensively sloppy goals which effectively put them out of the match. Cardiff goalkeeper Josh Herring was forced into making a number of saves to keep the score as low as possible.

There was still time, however, at the other end for Cardiff midfielder Jack Carlisle to convert a penalty and take a little gloss of Aston Villa's win.

Man of the Match: Josh Herring

The Cardiff goalkeeper was forced into action on a number of occasions and was up to the challenge. Without him the score may have been far greater for Aston Villa.

Report: Chris Nokes