First-half goal sinks Under-18s in Cottagers clash

Olly Sanderson’s first-half strike gave Fulham a narrow victory over our Under-18s at Hotspur Way on Saturday.

Twice denied by good stops from goalkeeper Aaron Maguire in the opening stages, the Cottagers’ forward made no mistake with a crisp first-time finish to settle the game 10 minutes before half-time.

His opposite number Jaden Williams had squandered a couple of good chances early in the game while Jamie Donley was later thwarted by Mikey Allen in the Fulham goal, but that was as close as we went as the visitors saw out a largely uneventful second half to claim a 1-0 win.

Maguire had a solid outing on his return to the starting XI, but his morning was nearly over before it had begun after he collided with Sanderson at the start of the game, leaving both players requiring medical attention. Thankfully he was okay to continue and he saw us go close to an 11th-minute opener at the opposite end when Rio Kyerematen swung a superb free-kick into the Fulham area, but Williams ballooned his header off target after the ball came to him suddenly. Williams found himself in with another chance just afterwards, but his shot from inside the box was blocked by Allen, with the rebound scrambled clear by a defender with Donley ready to pounce.

Fulham began to apply pressure on our defence and Maguire blocked Sanderson’s effort at his near post before making an excellent save with his foot to keep out a downward header from the same player just 60 seconds later.

Donley replied with an angled drive from inside the area for us, denied by Allen, before Terrell Works’ cross from the right was swept home at the first time of asking by Sanderson as Fulham hit the front on 35 minutes.

The second half didn’t yield much in the way of clear chances for either side, George Okkas’ early shot for the visitors well blocked by Archie Chaplin, while Jahziah Linton got forward from left-back to have a shot at goal from 20 yards on his right foot for us, but it was comfortably stopped by Allen. Imani Lanquedoc and Okkas had a couple of late half-chances for the Cottagers, but there was to be no further addition to the scoreline as we suffered our third consecutive Under-18 Premier League defeat.

‘We kept going and trying to do the right things’

Under-18s Coach Stuart Lewis reflected: “I felt we deserved more from the game, especially in the first half where we had some big opportunities to score and probably come in at half-time 2-1 or 3-1 up, but unfortunately we didn’t take those chances. In the second half it became quite a disjointed game that didn’t really get into any flow, Fulham slowed it down and neither team really tested either keeper which was disappointing but we kept going, we kept trying to do the right things by playing and running forward to try to get a goal back but unfortunately we couldn’t do that.

“There were still some pleasing moments in the game in terms of development, though, some good individual performances but it was disappointing to come away on the losing side because we’ve been working really hard on building that culture of accountability between each other. Fulham were quite a mature team, they knew how to slow it down and although it was a really positive first half, we needed a bit more belief in what we were trying to do in the second half.”