Gillingham 0-1 Fulham U21s

A first EFL Trophy win of the campaign saw Fulham Under-21s book their place in the knockout stages of the competition.

Hayden Mullins’ side travelled to Kent on Tuesday night to take on League Two outfit Gillingham, and emerged victorious courtesy of Aaron Loupalo-Bi’s first half strike.

A win would guarantee our progress in the cup provided Leyton Orient did not thump Portsmouth in the other Group M tie, but they slipped to a 2-1 defeat.

Fulham almost found themselves in front inside 90 seconds when home goalkeeper Glenn Morris cannoned his clearance into Luke Harris, with Imani Lanquedoc picking up the scraps before seeing his effort deflect marginally wide.

It was Lanquedoc who forced the first save of the game 11 minutes later when he stung the palms of Morris following good hold-up play from Loupalo-Bi.

Steven Benda was soon called into action at the other end, but he comfortably kept out Max Ehmer’s close range header.

The cup tie had begun to open up, with Harris rattling a half volley wide before Matty Macarthur cut inside and drew another stop from Benda.

Loupalo-Bi then threatened to capitalise on a misplaced throw-in from the opposition, but his 20 yarder whistled shy of the near post, before he set up Ollie O’Neill for a curler that was well blocked on its way over.

Fulham worked the subsequent corner neatly, with Tyrese Francois threading a ball through to O’Neill, but again the skipper saw his effort repelled.

The opener arrived in slick fashion. Harris’ vision saw him release Chris Donnell who had made a smart run into the box, with the Australian drilling a ball across the face for Loupalo-Bi to gobble up.

It took a while for the same intensity to materialise after the restart, with 20 minutes passing before the first opportunity of note, when Donnell headed Lanquedoc’s deep cross over.

That sparks Gills into life, with Tom Nichols’ wicked free-kick headed for the postage stamp until Harris bravely stuck his head in the way.

The best save of the night arrived in the 73rd minute, when Benda showed zero signs of rustiness from his recent injury in getting down to Lewis Walker’s firm strike.

Another goal would all but confirm Fulham’s progression and we threatened it with good play from our left-flankers, with winger O’Neill returning a one-two to full-back Jonathan Esenga who fired over.

O’Neill was provider again as we entered the final 10, firing a ball across the face for Loupalo-Bi to attack. His diverted effort on goal appeared to deflect over, but goal kick was the verdict.

Some home fans thought Walker had snatched an equaliser when his snapshot disturbed the netting, but thankfully it had flown the wrong side – from their perspective – of the post.

The Young Whites had seven minutes of stoppage time to navigate in order to secure safe passage to the knockouts, and it needed two brilliant bits of defending midway through from Harvey Araujo to preserve the lead, with a vital header and block repelling two dangerous attacks to book our spot in the next phase of the competition.