UNDER 18s DAVID JOYCE CUP FIRST ROUND
Thursday October 7th, 7.45pm
Victoria Mill Ground
WELLINGBOROUGH WHITWORTH UNDER 18s RED 1
Ralph Morrow 17
NORTHAMPTON TOWN UNDER 18s 3
Kenny Ndefo 11, 31, 67 pen
Cobblers: Callum Cook, Reece Irwin, Josh Brown, Tommy Curry, Ayo Lekuti, Kenny Ndefo, Kai O’Keeffe, Rico Duggan, Josh Tomlinson, Tom Cartwright, Reuben Wyatt
Substitutes: James Dadge, Brad Smith-Howes, Finn Amidi, Harry Guess, Jamari Hart
Kenny Ndefo scored a hat-trick as Northampton Town Under 18s progressed to the second round of the David Joyce Cup with a 3-1 win away to Wellingborough Whitworth Red on Thursday.
Coach Shane Goddard rotated his side and gave minutes to younger players with a home EFL Youth Alliance Cup third round tie against Southend United coming up at the weekend.
The Cobblers youngsters created the first clear opportunity of the match when Ndefo controlled Tommy Curry's cross, turned in the area and forced Whitworth goalkeeper Adam Gregory into a save.
Ndefo opened the scoring after 11 minutes, rounding Gregory and rolling the ball into the empty net.
Ralph Morrow equalised for the hosts six minutes later when he found the top corner from long range.
Ndefo doubled his tally and restored the Cobblers’ lead on the half-an-hour mark, running through on goal and calmly slotting into the bottom corner.
Curry cut inside and beat two defenders but dragged his shot inches wide of the far post before the break.
Reuben Wyatt broke through on goal but was denied by the legs of the onrushing Gregory after the interval.
Ndefo converted from the penalty spot to complete his hat-trick with little under 25 minutes remaining.
The ball fell to Finn Amidi at the back post, but he shot wide with a quarter-of-an-hour remaining as the visitors saw out a comfortable victory.
WELLINGBOROUGH WHITWORTH RED MATCH STATS (first half in brackets, match total out of brackets)
SHOTS ON TARGET: (4) 4
SHOTS OFF TARGET: (0) 4
CORNERS: (2) 6
FOULS: (5) 14
CAUGHT OFFSIDE: (0) 0
COBBLERS MATCH STATS (first half in brackets, match total out of brackets)
SHOTS ON TARGET: (5) 8
SHOTS OFF TARGET: (4) 12
CORNERS: (4) 7
FOULS: (4) 8
CAUGHT OFFSIDE: (2) 2