Despite a spirited fightback, Derby County’s Under 18s were unable to hold on as they fell to narrow 2-1 defeat to unbeaten Manchester City on Saturday afternoon.

Jordan Brown scored for the Rams in the second half to cancel out Fuseine Rashid’s fifth minute own goal, but an 81st minute penalty conversion from Lorenzo Jose Gonzalez saw the Citizens seal all three points in an exciting early-afternoon encounter.Looking back at this Premier League North fixture, it was one that the visitors, unbeaten all season, began brightly – causing the Rams a lot of problems with their vicious looking counter attacking play.After a number of attempts to get the ball in the box, on five minutes City did manage to get their reward after Luke Bolton’s dangerous cross from the right was sliced into his own net by Rashid as he went to clear the danger.Eager to make up for difficult start, the Rams persevered, and as the game matured, it was Justin Walker’s and Rory Delap’s side that began to take control.With nothing of note to report until the first half’s latter stages, Jahvan Davidson-Miller broke away at pace in the 36th minute with Cameron Cresswell to the left of him – however, a heavy pass saw the attacking move break down.Just before the interval, Derby were presented with their best opportunity of the game, coming from Jayden Mitchell-Lawson’s excellent corner-kick delivery. The chance fell to Rashid and he very nearly scored to cancel out his earlier own-goal, but he was denied by Arijanet Muric who threw his body behind the ball.After the restart, Derby picked up where they left off and almost had the ball in the back of the net with just 10 seconds on the clock after a defensive error saw Muric chasing a ball, which was heading towards his own net.As the Rams battled on, two separate chances from long range fell the way of Micah Edwards and Brown but both were unable to test the ‘keeper significantly enough.On 68 minutes, though, Derby’s persistence paid off as Brown did make the most of an opportunity on the edge of the box – blasting the ball to the right of the goal to the despair of Muric.With the score back on level terms, and all still to play for, both sides worked hard to take all three points – but a late penalty in the visitors’ favour ultimately decided the game after Joe Fryatt brought down Jose Gonzalez in the box.Unfortunately for the Rams, who also finished with ten men after Davidson-Miller was sent off for a rash challenge, it was an opportunity that Jose Gonzalez comfortably made the most of to secure all three points for his side in a game that Derby’s performance warranted more.Fryatt, Bogle, Mills, Magno, Rashid, C.Thomas, Mitchell-Lawson, Edwards (C), Davidson-Miller, Brown, CresswellWhittaker, Trialist, Dixon, Davie, GoodeMuric, Frimpong, Latibeaudiere (C), Rosler, Wilson, Smith, Bolton, Dele-Bashiru, Jose Gonzalez, Foden, PovedaOgbeta, Scott, Iker Pozo, Richards, HardyTweets by @ dcfcofficial