Third Place Finish In Fitland Talent Cup

Villa's youngsters have finished third in the U19 Fitland Talent Cup.

Villa topped their group in the Dutch competition held at Fortuna Sittard, before losing a penalty shoot out in the semi finals, meaning we faced IFK Goteborg in the play off match, which we won 1-0.

The lads started with a 2-1 win over the eventual winners Racing Club Genk of Belgium, where Daniel Devine continued his comeback from injury by opening the scoring on 4 minutes, before Michael Drennan doubled our lead 3 minutes later.

The second game saw us thrash Japan's Yasu Football Academy 6-1. Josh Barton opened the scoring, Michael Drennan bagged himself a second of the competition and Graham Burke finished from the penalty spot. Finishing off the scoring was Jordan Graham, Thomas Zazrivec and Graham Burke gave himself a brace.

Against Aarchen, Umit Eminoglu opened and Jordan Graham closed in a 2-0 victory.

Unfortunately then against the host club Fortuna Sittard in the semi, we went down 5-4 on penalties.

Jack Grealish won us bronze (see I'm topical!) against IFK Goteborg in the play off match.

All in, not a bad showing and a nice mix of known and new names on the scoresheet.

Speaking to the Official Site Academy Director Bryan Jones said of the tournament:

'It was a very good pre season excercise for us. To lose the semi final on penalties was disappointing. We had one shot in that game from Jack Grealish that hit both posts, came back out and struck Michael Drennan before going wide, so we were unlucky. In pre season it's mainly about fitness, but the standard of our play was excellent.'

Looks like we might have another few gems coming through if they can keep developing.

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