Premier U-18 League, South, 2019-20
     Hotspur Way, Whitewebbs Lane, Enfield
       Saturday 4th January 2020, 11am 

           SPURS      v     FULHAM
        (White/Blue)       (All Red)
          4-1-4-1           4-2-3-1

            4(1)              1(0)

Thimothee Lo-Tutala   1   Damian Las
       Marques Muir   2   Jay Williams
       Dermi Lusala   3   Idris Odutayo
       Harvey White   4   Connor McAvoy(C)
   Malachi Walcott(C) 5   Ibane Bowat
         Luis Binks   6   Luca Murphy
     Romaine Mundle   7   Oliver O'Neil
         Max Robson   8   Adrion Pajaditi
         Kion Etete   9   Jean-Pierre Tiehi
    Rafferty Pedder  10   Michael Olakigbe
     J'Neil Bennett  11   Imani Lanquedoc

        Yago Alonso  12   Mac Chisholm
  Kacper Kurylowicz  13
      Aaron Skinner  14   Jonathan Page
          (8)77Mins
   Roshaun Mathurin  15   Xavier Benjamin
          (7)83Min        (11)63Mins
 Tarrelle Whittaker  16   Terry Ablade
          (9)77Mins

Scorers:-
White 16,63(2 pens)       Tiehi 77
Mundle 46
Whittaker 82 

Booked:-
    Mundle 51(Pull)

Coach:-
     Matthew Taylor       Steve Wigley

Refetee:– Eugene Robinson

It was a chilly overcast morning with a low sun coming out for the second half. The visitors come to Hotspur Way in second place in the Southern League and beat Spurs 4-0 in the opening game of the season at Motspur Park. Spurs' last game before Christmas saw them come from behind to beat Leicester City 4-3 while Fulham had a 2-2 draw at leaders Chelsea.

Spurs lined up with Lo-Tutala in goal behind Walcott and Binks with Muir at right back and Lusala on the left. White anchored the midfield with Robson and Pedder ahead of him. They were flanked by Mundle on the right and Bennett on the left in support of Etete up front. While listed as number 15 Mathurin came on wearing the 18 shirt just to confuse matters.

Spurs defended the South end in the first half which saw the game played mainly in the middle third with Spurs passing their way through the middle and Fulham trying to press and turn the ball over. The first chance of the game came after a quarter of an hour when White played a long ball into the Fulham area for Etete to head and Las tipped over for a corner. White took the corner on the right and when it was not cleared, Robson was caught getting into the area to win a penalty. White stepped up and sent the keeper the wrong way, scoring to the left.

It was another ten minutes before the next chance occurred which was when Bennett was sent away down the left by Pedder to draw a save at the near post. Spurs had the ball in the net ten minutes later from a corner headed on by Binks for Bennett to turn in but it was ruled out for offside. That was the only goal action in the first half.

There were no changes for the start of the second half which saw Spurs score inside the opening minute. Etete played in Bennett on the left who crossed for Mundle to have a simple finish at the near post. With Fulham pushing forward from the start of the half, Etete was played through to drive against the right post and Mundle saw his follow-up cleared for a corner.

Mundle got the only yellow card of the game when he pulled back Pajaditi on the halfway line. Bennett got down the left again and was caught as he got into tha area to win Spurs a second penalty. White took the kick and put it into the right corner as the keeper went the other way.

Fulham had their first chance when Tiehi got through but his effort was blocked by Binks for a corner. Pajaditi hit a dipping cross-field effort that hit the far post. White had a free kick well over the bar before Fulham pulled a goal back. A ball from the left was deflected into the six yard box and Tiehi bundled it in.

Spurs made a double change before the restart with Whittaker replacing Etete up front and Skinner replacing Robson in midfield. The two subs combined to create a chance minutes after coming on when Skinner won the ball just inside the Fulham half and played it into the area where Whittaker hit it over the bar on the turn. A minute later Bennett crossed from the left and this time Whittaker made no mistake turning the ball inside the far post. Spurs made their last change with Mathurin replacing Mundle on the right as they saw out the game.

This was a good performance from Spurs with the only disappointment being not keeping a clean sheet. There were few chances in the game with most falling to the home side. Robson was spoken to by the referee for complaining about the number of times he felt he was fouled during the game. Despite Fulham committing the most fouls Spurs picked up the only booking(Spurs do seem to pick up more bookings per fouls than their opponents) of the match but did win two penalties. Next week the academy travel to Wigan for the fourth round of the FA Youth Cup on Wednesday evening. It should be a similar squad of players to today as the U-23's will be playing Chelsea on Monday at Stevenage. The win moves Spurs above Leicester City into fifth place but with a big gap to the top four.

Ray

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