Exeter City U21s continued their impressive form in the Premier League Cup with a late 1-0 win away at Norwich City U21s on Wednesday night.
With the match looking to end with the points shared, Tom Dean would prove to be the Grecians hero as his finish in the fifth minute of added time secured qualification from the group stage of this year's competition.
For the fourth game of the group, joint managers Dan Green and David Perkins named a young side that included the experienced Kevin McDonald. The 36-year-old returned to City last week and had his first minutes back in a red and white shirt.
Hot off the heels of starring in City's FA Youth Cup win against AFC Dunstable 24 hours earlier Goalkeeper Dylan Shanahan and Kieran Wilson were named amongst the subs.
First half
The hosts would start the match on the front foot with the first chance falling after ten minutes to Norwich City's trialist. He shot but he was denied by a smart save by the feet of Harry Lee.
Norwich created a few chances of note in the first half, but some composed defending combined with strong work from Harry Lee kept the score level.
At the other end, City looked threatening from corners testing Norwich goalkeeper Caleb Ansen.
City had calls for a penalty turned away after 35 minutes as the lively Amani Richards looked to have been bundled over by Lucien Mahovo. However, the referee was not interested in City's appeals.
The final chance of the half fell to Norwich's Errol Mundle-Smith, but he could only find the side-netting and the sides went in level at 0-0.
Second half
Kevin McDonald, who was brought in to help mentor City's young midfield, played almost an hour on his return to City and was replaced by Gabriel Billington, who made his second City appearance since returning from a long term injury.
The second half saw both sides have strong spells in control but without creating any chances of note, that was until Dan Ogwuru shot straight at Harry Lee just after the hour mark.
Both sides would soon have great chances to break the deadlock. Charlie Wilson had a header cleared off the line, before Jake Richards hit the post from close range at the other end as City came agonisingly close to taking the lead.
As the match approached the final few minutes, Mundle-Smith was given the chance to steal the points but his close-range header was sent well over the bar.
Minutes later hosts would find themselves down to ten men in added time as Okwumo was shown a second yellow card for a foul.
And just one minute later City would take full advantage and would steal the points. Charlie Cummins collected a Norwich clearance before sending a long cross-field ball to Jake Richards who showed perfect control to turn on the ball and feed Liam Oakes down the left. Oakes found Richards who drove into the penalty box before squaring for Tom Dean to fire through the goalkeeper to give City a dramatic late win, and net his third goal of the competition so far!
Two minutes later and City had picked up their fourth win out of four, and back-to-back clean sheets in the Premier League Cup. The win guarantees that City will be in the next stage of the competition - a great night's work and a fantastic week for our Academy!
Exeter City XI: Lee, Cayless (Perkins '88), James (C), Cummins, McDonald (Billington '57), Oakes, J. Richards, Dean, Cutler (Wilson '77), Beardmore ('78), A. Richards.
Unused subs: Shanahan.
Bookings: Edgecombe, Oakes, Cummins, J. Richards,
Goal: Tom Dean 90+5
Norwich City: Ansen; Okwumo, Tomkinson, Warner (C) (Wilson h-t), Mahovo; Trialist (Ogwuru 60), Djedje; Springett (Forbes h-t), Manning, Bridge; Mundle-Smith
Unused subs: Finch, Chilvers
Bookings: Okwumo, Djedje
Red card: Okwumo (90+4)