Our nine-man Under-18s were out of character and out of luck, enduring a miserable night at Watford in the FA Youth Cup on Thursday.
Going into the fifth-round tie on an eight-game unbeaten run stretching back to the end of October, our youngsters seemed well-placed to produce another bright performance under the lights and in front of a large crowd at Vicarage Road.
But after an encouraging first few minutes, we suffered a disastrous evening, shipping four goals and seeing two players sent off to exit the competition in disappointing fashion.
Reiss Elliott-Parris gave us a lifeline in the first half after Nickson Okosun and Amin Nabizada had put the hosts 2-0 up inside 18 minutes, but the dismissals of defender Malachi Hardy and striker Elliott-Parris either side of the break left us up against it, with Nabizada scoring his second from the penalty spot moments later to compound our misery. We switched to a 3-4-1 formation and attacked whenever we could, Tye Hall pulling one back from Harry Byrne's free-kick, but after Zavier Massiah-Edwards' drive deflected in off defender Luca Furnell-Gill and the far post, there was no coming back.
More to follow...