By Ethan Georgiou

Fulham Under-21s held Tottenham Hotspur to a 1-1 draw on Saturday afternoon.

Connor McAvoy's excellent header put us ahead in the first half, before Yago De Santiago Alonso struck later in the game.

Steve Wigley made a few changes to our side that beat Celtic in the Premier League International Cup earlier in the week.

Goalkeeper Alex Borto replaced George Wickens to make his second Under-21s appearance of the season, while the back line needed a reshuffle with Charlie Robinson featuring for the Under-18s. Stefan Parkes came in at left-back, which meant Ibane Bowat was placed in the heart of defence alongside Connor McAvoy.

The absence of Luke Harris gave Martial Godo a return to the line-up. The winger was unavailable against Celtic due to injury.

The young Whites made a dream start in North London, taking the lead just three minutes in. Centre-back McAvoy rose highest to expertly head home Ollie O’Neill’s corner kick.

McAvoy opens the scoring

Somehow, Spurs didn’t get themselves level just past the 10-minute mark. Alfie Devine made a clever run and found himself clean through, but could only fire his effort over. Huge opportunity for the hosts.

Another massive chance came and went for Tottenham just a few minutes later, and it came from another defence-splitting through-ball. Romaine Mundle’s strike flashed just wide of the far post, much to the relief of Borto.

The game was livening up by the minute. Godo cleverly flicked on Kristian Šekularac’s chipped ball, before O’Neill fired wide.

Borto then came to our rescue twice in the space of five minutes. First, the American came rushing off his line to deny Kallum Cesay from close-range. Then, soon after, he somehow tipped Mundle’s curling effort wide. He was at full stretch.

Despite Spurs creating a handful of good chances, we went in at the break ahead thanks to McAvoy’s powerful header.

Šekularac charges forward

O’Neill was on the end of the first half-chance after the interval. Jay Williams played a clever floated ball through to the Irishman, but his attempted volley from the left went wide.

Spurs created yet another huge opportunity 10 minutes after the restart, but again, finishing let them down. Devine was fed through but made a mess of his shot.

Wayne Burnett’s side grabbed a pretty deserved leveler just past the hour mark. Alonso latched onto a loose, bouncing ball before tucking a shot into the bottom right corner.

We responded to the goal well, with a couple of efforts well blocked by the Spurs defence. We needed to do some defending of our own, however. With 15 minutes remaining, Olly Sanderson made an excellent diving block after some pinball in our area.

Borto, who had been really impressive all game, saved us late on. Spurs were awarded a penalty with just minutes remaining after a trip in the area, but our stopper guessed correctly and flew across his goal to keep the powerful strike out.

An entertaining game was brought to an end with the two sides level.

Tottenham Hotspur U21: Keeley, Fagan-Walcott, Robson, Lyons-Foster, Muir, Devine, Matthew Craig, Cesay (Lankshear 77'), John, Yago Alonso (Mathurin 88'), Mundle

Subs: Maguire, Dorrington, Mathurin, Lankshear

Fulham U21: Borto, Bowat, McAvoy, D'Auria-Henry, Parkes, Godo, Dibley-Dias, Sekularac (Tanton 81'), Williams (McFarlane 58'), O'Neill, Sanderson

Subs: Tanton, Okkas, Allen, McFarlane

Stats vs Spurs