Reading U18 1-0 Fulham U18

Fulham Under-18s fell to a third consecutive defeat with a late 1-0 loss at Reading.

It looked as though our Young Whites were going to pick up a valuable point on the road until Emmanuel Osho’s 83^rd minute winner for the Royals.

That late goal was a sucker punch, especially to goalkeeper Dino Kaiser, who put in one of his best performances of the campaign, beginning his afternoon with a stop at his near post to deny Ashqar Ahmed.

Kaiser could only watch on when a deep corner found the head of Philip Duah, who somehow missed the target despite being completely free at the back post.

The Bosnia youth international then used his feet to keep out Kiyan Coke Miles Smith shortly after.

A flurry of chances arrived towards the end of the half. Brodie Dair was denied his first Fulham goal by the onrushing James Sharlott, before the Scottish striker saw a glancing header whistle past the post from the resulting corner.

With the final chance of the first period, Macaulay Zepa set Tom Wingate through on goal, but he failed to hit the target when one-on-one with Sharlott.

Wingate set up another promising Fulham opportunity on the hour mark, pulling the ball back to Farhaan Ali-Wahid, with Sharlott holding onto his deflected effort.

But it was the hosts who ended the clash stronger as Verrell George fluffed his lines when meeting a knock down from a set-piece, before Kaiser made his best save of his bunch, managing to get fingertips to Tyler Sackey’s powerful piledriver.

That pressure proved too much with seven minutes to play as the ball was worked patiently from left to right, with Osho eventually finishing with aplomb past Kaiser.

A trip to West Ham is next up for our U18s, 11am kick-off on Saturday 15th March.