Fulham U18 2-2 Leicester U18

Fulham Under-18s came from two goals to earn a deserved point against Leicester City at Motspur Park on Saturday afternoon.

It was the least Ali Melloul’s side deserved for a dominant second-half performance, with a Tom Wingate brace cancelling out first-half strikes from Lorenz Hutchinson and Maxwell Adedeji.

It was an admirable comeback from our youngsters and it could have been even better if Michael Toko’s stoppage-time red card had come slightly earlier in the day.

The high-scoring visitors started brightly, with Will Daniels demonstrating good technique to wrap his foot around the ball as a low cross came in slightly behind him, but the shot whistled over Dino Kaiser’s bar.

The young goalkeeper was then down low to tip wide Biz Owusu’s piledriver.

Macaulay Zepa didn’t look likely to meet a long Kaiser diagonal in the 10^th minute, but he chased the ambitious pass and got his rewards, meeting the ball and dragging it back to Wingate, who saw his effort deflect narrowly wide.

Our Young Whites then had a 10-minute spell of control, as Zepa and Luca Picotto flashed balls across the face of goal.

Leicester’s opener felt slightly against the run of play, but it was an emphatic finish by Hutchinson who slammed the ball past Kaiser from inside the box.

Picotto was getting some joy down the left side as he produced another cross for Brodie Dair, with the striker skying the ball over the bar.

The second goal from the visitors was a sucker punch, arriving five minutes before the interval. Ajedeji rose highest from a set-piece and nodded the ball beyond Kaiser into the far corner.

Straight from the restart, Zepa took it upon himself to take the ball from halfway to the byline, but his flash across the box was too powerful for Tarrell Cavell to control.

Despite a largely controlled performance, it took until the 58^th minute to test goalkeeper Lewis McNab, who rushed out to make a big save at the feet of Dair.

A similar opportunity presented itself to Dair a couple of minutes later, with McNab standing strong at his near post to parry the striker’s powerful effort.

Chances were being created frequently – and it took a Leicester defender to make a big block from Ruban Khan after some smart hold up play by Dair.

The goal did eventually come when substitute Cavell drove forwards with the ball down the left flank, picked out Wingate with a defence-splitting right-footed pass, with the striker finishing into the bottom corner.

Wingate had the chance to equalise with just three minutes to play as he was tripped in the box. Our number 10 was emphatic from the spot, with McNab unable to keep the spot kick out despite going the right way.

There was an opportunity to complete an epic comeback late on as Zepa’s searching diagonal found Cavell at the back post, but his sweeping shot on the volley was kept out by McNab’s feet.

A red card for Toko, given for a foul on Zepa, came too late in the day to have any sort of impact, as both sides were forced to settle for a point.

Our U18s are next in action on Tuesday morning at Arsenal, 11am kick-off.