Our Under-21s’ Vertu Trophy campaign came to an end with a 2-2 draw and subsequent penalty shootout defeat at Cheltenham Town on Tuesday night.
Both teams knew they were unable to qualify for the knockout stages before kick-off and were thus left playing solely for pride in Southern Group B – and our depleted side certainly did that, producing some excellent football at times and twice coming back from behind to level through Oli Irow and captain Rio Kyerematen.
The latter’s goal came just a minute from time as we avoided what would have been a harsh defeat in normal time to claim a thoroughly-deserved share of the spoils in Gloucestershire, but after both he and Leo Black were denied from the spot by Joe Day and Reiss Russell-Denny fired over the bar, it was the League Two hosts who triumphed 3-1 in the resulting penalty shootout to claim the extra point on offer.
More to follow.