Rovers’ U18s came from two goals down to take a point from Huddersfield Town after a Jack Goodman brace.
Rovers got off to a flying start in West Yorkshire. Our first chance came within the opening two minutes with Jack Goodman heading over the bar from Jack Raper’s corner.
Will Hollings was involved in a lot of the action for Rovers with penetrating runs forwards and got a shot off from distance later on, which was saved by the oppositions number one.
Raper, who set up the first corner, placed a teasing ball into the box which just escaped forward Ethan Harrison.
Huddersfield got their first chance of the game on the tenth minute when Tom Iorpenda shot from distance, forcing a save out of Tom Chambers.
Their left back then bundled an effort over Chambers’ bar minutes later – a chance he should have converted.
The game started to balance out from this point. But the Terriers soon took the lead from an unstoppable rocket of a free kick 25-yards out by Michael Stone, which bulged into the top left corner of the goal.
The final chance of the half for Rovers saw Dan Wilds float a perfect ball into the box but Corie Cole was unfortunate not to get the right connection onto it.
After half-time it took Huddersfield only ten minutes to double their lead as Donay O’Brien-Brady’s cross ended up in the back of Chambers’ net.
This sparked motivation into Rovers’ youngsters who really turned up the tempo from this point. Hollings impressively won back possession on the halfway line, sprinted forward managing to avoid all the defenders enroute, but he was not able to finish his run with the desired goal.
Seconds later and Hollings found himself in a similar goal scoring position but this time he set up Goodman who got Rovers back in the game.
Rovers won an enticing free kick just outside the box. Cole hit the ball over Huddersfield’s wall but was unfortunate to hit the post.
With five minutes left to go of the game, Goodman brought things level with a volley from close range.
In the dying moments of the game Tom Parkinson floated in a perfect ball which was headed goal wards by Wilds but it wasn’t meant to be.
The U18s will next weekend face Mansfield Town in their second group match of the EFL Youth Cup.