With the first round of tournament matches out of the way, last weekend saw some more keenly contested matches between the Youth teams from Barnsley, Hartlepool United and Rotherham United and their Swedish counterparts from OFK, IFK Sundvall and AIK Stockholm.
Back to back fixtures over the Saturday and the Sunday meant it would test fitness levels all round and Barnsley got off to a flying start as they racked up an impressive 4-1 victory against OFK. Meanwhile Hartlepool Utd’s youngsters made amends following their defeat at the hands of Ytterhogdals IK by defeating IFK 3-1. The win coming courtesy of well taken brace from Paul Johnson.
Unfortunately Rotherham Utd couldn’t make it a clean sweep. The Millers were on the wrong end of a 5–2 score line at AIK Stockholm.
Sundays round of matches again saw the Tykes and The Pool youngsters record impressive victories with the two clubs amassing a 14–1 aggregate success between them.
Barnsley tore AIK apart to post a 7–1 victory with goals coming from Steven Bennett (4) and Connor Branson, Alastair Taylor, Daniel Fearnehough all registering solitary strikes.
Hartlepool were again able to rely on the finishing prowess of Paul Johnson who bagged a hat-trick in a 7–0 victory against OFK.
In the final game of the night Rotherham Utd’s Apprentices fell to a 2nd successive defeat as they were beaten 2–1 by IFK Sundvall. Ollie Banks 2nd goal in as many games being the highlight of the night for the Millers.
