Armend Muslika’s fine free-kick on the stroke of half-time settled the contest as our Under-18s ground out a 1-0 home win over Fulham on Saturday.
In a game where we didn’t manage to capture our usual rhythm, it needed a moment of magic from Muslika to break the deadlock and ensure we kept pace with leaders Chelsea, who remain two points clear at the top of the Under-18 Premier League’s southern division standings.
Substitute Phoenix Offiah was denied a second by an incredible save from Fulham goalkeeper Matt Bagot six minutes from time while some last-ditch interventions from Cameron Thomas and goalkeeper Dylan Thompson prevented the visitors from scrambling in a late leveller, but on the whole it was tough going for our much-changed side in what was our third game of the week at this level.
With the hectic schedule in mind, Under-18s Coach Jamie Carr rotated his team with four changes from the midweek win at Arsenal, including a debut for recent signing from Chelsea, Joel Vidal-Philbert, on the wing. He almost made an explosive start, firing into the side-netting and then sending Oliver Boast through on goal with an exquisite pass inside the first couple of minutes, although the latter couldn’t find a way past Bagot after colliding with him in the box and the chance went begging.
A through ball from deep caught everyone out at the other end as Anand Batra went through on goal but he fired straight at Thompson, while Muslika felt he should have had a penalty when he took on Fulham defender Logan Cooke in their box and went to ground, but the referee waved play on.
Injuries to a couple of Fulham players meant the first half was rather drawn-out, but in the fifth added minute at the end of that period we took the lead, Muslika curling a beauty of a free-kick inside the near post on his right foot, as he has done before on a couple of different occasions this season, to give us the upper hand.
Oscar Sandiford and opposite number Nazim Benchaite fired over the bar at either end in the second period but clear chances were at a premium until the 84th minute when – not for the first time in the game – substitute Conall Glancy released Miracle Adewole with a great pass down the left flank, Offiah subsequently thumping the latter’s cross towards goal from the middle of the box, only for Bagot to somehow turn it away. We had to be strong at the back as Fulham tried to force a late equaliser on the second phase following a corner, but a block from Thomas almost on the line, followed by a low save from Thompson, saw us escape and secure maximum points.
‘Disappointed with the performance’
Coach Jamie made it clear after the game that our display didn’t hit the levels he expects, telling SPURSPLAY: “Overall, we’re coming away slightly disappointed with the performance. We spoke about having enough on the ball to show that we can play, regardless of the situation or the state of the game, and just to make sure that we have enough control of the ball to just show our level really, so that was probably one of the disappointing things for us today. We scored a great goal with an individual free-kick from Armend, but other than that we didn’t really show the quality that we’d like to see.”