Charlton Athletic U18 defender Toby Bower spoke to Valley Gold for Academy Notes following the recent 4-1 win over Northampton Town in the FA Youth Cup.
The young full-back first started training with the Addicks aged 7 and signed for the club as an U9. He describes himself as a technical defender who likes to receive the ball and play forward to create goals. Speaking after the cup win, he told Valley Gold:
“We made a bright and positive start to the game playing through and around their shape to create attacks, whilst defending comfortably against the opposition’s long balls.
“After dominating the first 25 minutes Daniel Kanu opened the scoring after some wonderful work from Ryan Huke down the left-hand side. Huke was surrounded by three defenders but managed to dribble out from the pressure to find Kanu, who drilled into the bottom corner from close range.
“Many more chances fell for us including one from Karoy Anderson, who found himself in some space on the edge of the box and curled a glorious effort towards goal, only for the Northampton keeper to make a good save.
“Northampton gained some momentum at the start of the second half, and their persistence paid off after a ball into the box found their forward who calmed lifted over Kone from close range. However, it didn’t take long for us to respond after some work down the right-hand side allowed me to find the back of the net from the edge of the box.
“From the restart, we piled on the pressure and Casey netted our third with a close-range effort after some good left-sided play from myself and Kanu.
“Our fourth goal came in the 82nd minute thanks to some brilliance from substitute Kai Enslin who cut inside the defender and curled a beauty into the top corner.”
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