Fulham U18 4-3 Arsenal U18

Fulham Under-18s came out on the right side of a seven-goal thriller against Arsenal at Motspur Park on Saturday morning.

In our Young Whites’ penultimate game of the season, we found ourselves 3-0 up after 30 minutes thanks to goals from Bradley Slade, Macaulay Zepa and Brodie Dair.

Ali Melloul’s side were made to pay for a sloppy end to the half though, and it was 3-2 at the break. Dair made it a brace shortly after the restart, but the Gunners made sure of a nervy ending as Dan Casey reduced the deficit again, but we held out to make it three straight victories.

Early set-pieces brought us some joy against Brighton last time out – and we were similarly effective from dead ball situations here.

Zepa’s whipped corner was met by Slade’s outstretched leg to give us an early lead.

Slade was then released down the left side shortly after, pinging a dangerous cross on the half volley into the box, but there was no attacker on the end of it.

Zepa doubled the advantage on 15 minutes. Cutting in onto his left foot, he wrapped his boot around the ball and unleashed a powerful shot which flied over Jack Talbot.

Up against his former side, Zepa was in the mood, and he won a penalty as he danced into the box and was tripped. Captain Jayden Quashie saw his penalty saved, with Talbot guessing the right way as our midfielder rolled the ball to his left.

The winger was once again involved as we increased our lead even further. He made it to the byline, fizzed a cross towards the back post, and Dair was there to fire home his first Fulham goal.

Max Dowman, who scored in both of our previous meetings with Arsenal this season, took matters into his own hands as he went on a mazy run from left to right, but he was off balance and off target as he shot towards Kaiser’s goal.

Kaiser made an outstanding stop on the stroke of half-time, scrambling across his line and throwing himself in the way of Ceadach O’Neill’s shot from a few yards out, although the offside flag was up anyway.

Dowman did get his goal with just a minute of normal time to play, left all alone in the box to tap home after Kaiser had initially made a save.

And Casey ensured that the moods were very different at half-time as he halved the deficit.

It was double delight for Dair as the two-goal advantage was restored 10 minutes after the interval. Talbot made a good initial save from Aidan Evans, although he could only parry the ball into the path of Dair, who smashed the rebound in via a deflection.

A hat-trick almost arrived moments later as the striker curled a delicious strike narrowly past the post.

This was becoming an end-to-end affair as Casey doubled his tally for the afternoon, poking the ball beyond an onrushing Kaiser.

Kaiser’s stop to deny Dowman was special. The Arsenal attacker created a yard of space, getting away from Slade and drilling a shot towards the near corner, but our Bosnia youth international sprung to his left to keep the effort out.

There was plenty of whip on Dowman’s free-kick in the 78th minute – and Kaiser had his post to thank as it smashed off the woodwork.

Even with 10 minutes to play, this tie was impossible to call, but our Young Whites were keen to kill off the contest. Talbot kept Arsenal in it during the final minutes, denying Zepa and substitute Ruban Khan, who met a Kyle Grant cutback.

Another Dowman curler looked destined for the top corner, but instead hit the stanchion, meaning we held out for another impressive victory.

Our U18s finish the season with a trip to Tottenham on Wednesday morning, 11am kick-off on Hotspur Way.