Hope for Stoke City as two key players set to join the team”

There were a couple of dozen diehard Stoke City fans around the back of Clayton Wood with smiles on their faces on Monday afternoon. They had watched a hard-earned and entertaining win full of character, skill and hope for the under-21s against an expensively-assembled Brighton and Hove Albion team.

Naturally, the attention was always going to be on the performances of Tyrese Campbell and Andre Vidigal, the first team, who both seemed to be taking the match seriously enough in an attempt to get back into the conversation for the Steven Schumacher Championship. Campbell laid on two, while Vidigal made one and scored one.

However, there were also some encouraging performances. Stoke, for example, overcame a 1-0 deficit to lead 3-1 and then collected themselves at 3-3 to win 4-3, their sixth Premier League 2 victory in eight games.

Nikola Jojic scored a well-taken goal thanks to a driving run by Liam McCarron, and Keke Jeffers, who came off the bench, thundered in the winner. Will Smith and Tom Sparrow demonstrated initiative and responsibility, while center-half Tom Curl displayed boldness by occasionally taking a swing at the ball.

However, two of the younger boys deserve special recognition for playing as a team for Stoke.

Sol Sidibe, who turned 17 this month, appears to be continuing to grow both physically and figuratively. Alex Neil never got the chance to implement his strategy, but he wanted to control his breakthrough by providing him playing time when the team’s pressure wasn’t as great as it is at the bottom of the standings. He needs to be heavily considered in the club’s planning since he has the potential to be the whole package.

Jaden Dixon doesn’t turn 17 until May but he looks a classy prospect at centre-back. He joined from Spurs last summer and seems to have found a good place to grow as a footballer – and it’s no bad thing to be taken under the wing of Ryan Shawcross.

Promising stuff and both will be back with the under-17s next Tuesday at home against Wolves in the Premier League Cup semi-final. They both scored in a 3-0 quarter-final win at Aston Villa and they will be out to make a mark again.