Fulham U18 2-2 Reading U18

Fulham and Reading Under-18s played out an entertaining 2-2 draw at Motspur Park on Saturday.

Having trailed, goals either side of half-time from Farhaan Ali Wahid and Seth Ridgeon put the Young Whites in control, but the Royals hit a late equaliser to deny us all three points.

In the ninth minute, Bradley Slade’s diagonal found Macaulay Zepa on the right flank, who fizzed a dangerous ball across the face. Reading right-back Ryan Zie might have put it into his own net, but actually did well to turn it away from goal.

Zie’s team then went straight up the other end as Jerae Jones burst though, but he dragged his shot wide.

The Royals went in front soon after when Luke Howard rose highest to meet a corner from the left, guiding a looping header inside the far post.

There was almost an immediate response when visiting captain Phillip Duah went to play the ball back to Josh Welland, not realising his goalkeeper had come way out. Thankfully for Duah, his pass back drifted a yard wide of the abandoned goal.

Fulham almost punished our opponents from the resulting corner, but Jayden Quashie’s volley deflected onto the roof of the net.

We came close to an equaliser with a carbon copy of the Reading goal, but Aiden Evans’ header flew a whisker over after he made good contact with Luca Picotto’s corner.

A lovely one-two between Zepa and Ridgeon just before the half hour almost brought parity, but Welland was off his line well to smother the winger’s effort.

It was all Fulham by this point and Ali Wahid’s eyes lit up when a free-kick was blocked and looped up in front of him. He caught his volley sweetly, but it dropped a yard wide of the near post.

Ridgeon then had a volley of his own have the pace taken off it by a covering defender, making it an easy save for Welland.

The goal the boys deserved arrived five minutes before the break when Zepa fed Ali Wahid who spun quickly on the edge of the box before drilling an accurate shot across goal and into the far bottom corner.

Not content to just go in level, the Young Whites continued to push as stoppage time approached, with Evans denied on the angle by Welland.

The boys took their first half momentum into the second period, and it paid off within five minutes as Ridgeon rifled an effort with the outside of his right foot into the postage stamp of the goal.

Shortly after the hour mark, excellent hold-up play from Bashil Lubega allowed Quashie to switch the ball to Zepa who tried his luck from an acute angle, with Welland palming over.

A first Reading threat in a long while looked to have yielded an equaliser when Henry Agyekam managed to squeeze a shot beyond Dino Kaiser, but Logan Cooke was well positioned to hack off the line.

When they did level things up in the 84th minute, there was a degree of luck to it. There didn’t seem much danger when Jones pulled the trigger from a very tight angle, but a nick on its way through was enough to send it beyond Kaiser and make it 2-2.

Things could have been worse when Jones got on the end of a fabulous through pass from Ryan Beacroft in the 90th minute, but Kaiser made a fine sprawling save.

Fulham countered quickly from the subsequent corner, with Eddy Nsasi putting Quashie clean through on goal, but Welland did terrifically to deny the Whites captain.

Ali Wahid did put the ball in the net in stoppage time, but the flag had already got up after his assister, Nsasi, had strayed offside, meaning it was spoils shared at Motspur Park.