Under-21s fall just short at Enfield Town

A second-half thunderbolt from Nile John set up a close finale, but it wasn't to be as our Under-21s were edged out 3-2 in the traditional pre-season friendly at Enfield Town on Tuesday evening.

In what has become a highly-popular summer fixture at the Queen Elizabeth II Stadium, just down the road from our Training Centre, we recovered from conceding an early opener to level through Roshaun Mathurin's penalty, only to find ourselves 3-1 down just beyond the hour mark before John's moment of magic reduced the arrears.

We finished strongly, Kion Etete an imposing influence up front as one of a number of the more experienced members of Wayne Burnett's squad to have been introduced off the bench for the last half-an-hour, but ultimately didn't manage to create that one chance we needed and the hosts were able to escape with the win.

It was an enjoyable fixture from the off, the large crowd in attendance waiting less than three minutes for the first goal as Town's Player of the Year Sam Youngs swept into the bottom corner from inside the box. Max Robson forced a fine save from home goalkeeper Adi Connolly at the other end and although Youngs and James Dayton tried to extend Town's advantage with shots from range, we deserved our equaliser on the half-hour mark as Mathurin, who scored the winner on his comeback from injury in Saturday's behind-closed-doors friendly against Colchester United, converted from the spot after being fouled by Scott Shulton.

Another player making his return after injury, Luca Gunter pulled off some terrific saves within minutes of being introduced as a half-time substitute between the sticks, spectacularly keeping out Marcus Wyllie's snap-shot and header, but after he produced another impressive double-save from Youngs and Wynford Marko, he was finally beaten when Adam Cunnington lashed home from Town's third attempt in quick succession on the 50-minute mark.

We fell further behind 11 minutes later after Kallum Cesay was deemed to have bundled Wyllie over in the box, Youngs converting the resulting penalty, but John replied in some style shortly afterwards, pinging an unstoppable shot into the top corner from 20 yards to make it 3-2 with a quarter of the game still remaining. We had a real zest to our play at times, Romaine Mundle a lively influence down the left side and Etete always looking a threat with the ball at his feet in the central attacking areas, but we couldn't carve out any further notable chances and the game ultimately slipped away.

Match data

Goals: Enfield Town - Youngs 3, 61 (pen), Cunnington 50; Spurs - Mathurin 30 (pen), John 67.

Yellow card: Enfield Town - Smith 72.

Referee: Steve Walsh.

Venue: Queen Elizabeth II Stadium, Enfield.

Weather: Bright, humid, 26 degrees.

Attendance: 841.