The Isle of Man under-18s finally made the trip to the UK following Storm Isha to face Oxton in the EH Tier Two Championships round two at the weekend.

The boys struggled with the lifeless Merseyside pitch for the first few minutes with the home side using this to their advantage and after 15 minutes Oxton converted an open play chance to go 1-0 up.

Team IoM, led by captain Luca Parlato, rallied and created numerous chances but it wasn’t until two minutes before half-time when some great passing interchanges between Alfie Swales and Josh Dougal created a shot on goal. Alex Andrew was quickest to react to the initial Oxton goalkeeper’s save to calmly lift it into the open net and level up the scores at half-time.

The Manx boys were fired up for the second half with the game plan and a were more aggressive in their pressing as they produced a higher intensity. Indeed the islanders sealed the game in a devastating spell of eight second-half minutes.

Tireless running from Kian Ledwidge sent Swales through one on one with the Oxton keeper. Seeing his first effort saved, Swales calmly rounded the keeper to finish into the unguarded goal.

Two minutes later, and following some great advantage by travelling umpire Jamie Brown, Swales carried the ball along the left baseline before picking out Parlato on the back post for his first of the game.

Before the bench had chance to process the third goal, Archie Cox pick-pocketed the Oxton right-half on the halfway line.

Not done there, he drove through four Oxton tackles efforts before calmly slotting under the on-rushing keeper in a great display of skill, determination and composure.

The island’s final goal saw a tenacious right hand drive and unselfish forward work in the D provided Parlato with his second of the game.

Oxton picked up a late consolation goal to make the final score 5-2.

A quick turnaround sees the boys travel to Timperley next Sunday for the next round.

As always, a huge thanks to Oak for its continued sponsorship.

l The island’s under 16 boys lost 6-0 in their game as they faced a very strong Neston side.