City Next Gen suffer narrow defeat to Durham | OneFootball

Manchester City Next Gen suffered a narrow 2-1 defeat to Durham in the PGA League Under 21 Division One.

After a battling first 45 ended goalless, second-half strikes from the visitors were enough to seal three points despite Grace Foster pulling a goal back with 20 minutes remaining.

The early exchanges at the City Football Academy were evenly contested with chances at a premium.

Next Gen’s first opening came when Millie Burdon directed Aoife Colbert Martin’s whipped free-kick towards Rachel Adedini who, on the stretch, poked the ball just wide.

That raised the tempo and Durham came close to taking the lead twice before half-time – forcing Burdon to heroically clear a goalbound shot off the line before the ball crashed into the crossbar from an in-swinging corner.

Durham took the lead immediately after the restart, though, when Abbie Smith pushed a dipping effort away before the rebound was tucked into an empty net.

Next Gen’s keeper was called into action soon after a made a fantastic save to prevent a stinging effort from finding the top corner, but from the resulting set-play, the visitors doubled their advantage.

With the hosts looking for a route back into the fixture, City halved the deficit through Foster’s phenomenal free-kick which looped into the net from all of 25-yards.

But despite pushing for an equaliser, the goal Izzy Christiansen’s side craved just evaded us as the contest ended in defeat - meaning Next Gen remain on 19 points with four matches remaining in the league this season.