Our youngsters let a 2-0 lead slip through their fingers as Southampton ran out 4-2 winners in the Under-18 Premier League at Hotspur Way on Saturday lunchtime.
Having established a two-goal advantage in an intense contest thanks to Tynan Thompson’s penalty and Luca Williams-Barnett’s strike on the counter-attack, we conceded just before the break and then shipped three more in a disappointing second-half display to slump to defeat at the hands of the second-placed Saints.
Although the visitors pressed from the off with some good blocks needed from our defence in the early exchanges, the outlook had been much brighter for us in the first period as we dictated the play for long spells and took our chances to establish the advantage. Thompson fired us ahead from the spot on 17 minutes after Ellis Lehane was fouled in the box by Abdulhalim Okunola, before Williams-Barnett ran from inside our own half following Tye Hall’s long ball out from the back to slot past goalkeeper Dylan Moody on the break for 2-0 just over 20 minutes later.
Southampton had largely been restricted to shots from distance during the first period but when Sufianu Dibaga’s half-volley glanced off the back of defender Jun’ai Byfield and spun inside the far post a minute before the interval, they found a route back into the game and pushed on to win in the second half.
Their equaliser came four minutes after the restart when Korban McMullan sent Harry Gathercole through in the left channel, he drew goalkeeper Sam Archer off his line and then laid it back for McMullan to crash a shot high into the unguarded net from the edge of the area. Reiss Elliott-Parris and Ellis Lehane couldn’t capitalise on a couple of openings for us – this being the first time the two strikers had started a league game together at this level, with usually one or the other leading the line – but the Saints were creating more opportunities and after Archer beat away McMullan’s close-range header, substitute Nick Orukunle latched onto Dibaga’s cut-back from the right and slid home to give his side a 74th-minute lead.
And five minutes later, it was 4-2 as McMullan squeezed the ball through to Gathercole and he finished clinically from the left angle inside the box. Substitute Dexter Oliver volleyed straight at Moody just seconds after coming on as we tried to find a response, but the Saints had it under control by that stage and it was only a good save from the advancing Archer that denied Orukunle another goal in stoppage time.