A delicious chip from Aiden White earned Fulham’s under 18s a share of spoils at West Ham United this afternoon as the young Whites showed commendable character to twice fight back from a goal down and force derby draw.
Josh Landers scored twice for the hosts at Little Heath – either side of a Tom Wingate penalty – and it needed White’s magic with a quarter of an hour remaining to end Ali Melloul’s side’s miserable run of three straight league defeats.
Brodie Dair saw an early header ruled out for offside before Dino Kaiser picked up where he had left off at Reading in midweek, making a stunning save to push Chinaza Nwosu’s goalbound free-kick onto the his near post. Fulham were threatening on the break and Kyle Grant was disappointed to drag his shot wide of the target having done the hard work of leading the young Whites’ press and dispossessing a defender in a dangerous area.
Landers opened the scoring with an incredible individual effort. The intelligent striker collected a pass from Andre Dike, cut in from the right flank and curled an exquisite left-footed finish beyond Kaiser from 20 yards. It could easily have quickly got much worse for the Whites when Seth Chingwaro was robbed of possession by Jonathan Unwin, whose goalbound effort had Kaiser at full stretch to keep the deficit down to one.
Centre back Aaron Kamara’s header drifted just wide when he was allowed to win a set-piece header far too easily, but the visitors finished the half the stronger. Wingate took too long to try and beat Lanre Awesu when he found himself one-on-one with the West Ham keeper, who blocked his low drive comfortably.
But no sooner had that opportunity vanished than Wingate won another duel with Awesu – this time from the penalty spot after Luca Picotto was fouled in the area. The Fulham forward drilled his spot-kick low and hard into the net to bring Melloul’s level five minutes before the half-time interval.
But parity lasted only five minutes before Landers conjured up another special strike – this time thumping Joe Scanlon’s superb pass into the roof of the net to restore the Hammers’ advantage right at the end of the first half.
The second half swung from end to end with both sides seeking goals. Zepa went close twice – the winger’s rasping drive was bravely blocked by Rayan Oyebade before the mercurial French talented tested Awesu’s reflexes with a daisycutter. But Landers might have completed his hat-trick with a deft header that drifted just wide of Kaiser’s goal before Khan blazed over from a clever cross by Ruban Khan.
The Whites continued to patiently probe and were rewarded for their never-say-die approach fourteen minutes from time when White capitalised on a poor ball out from the back by Kamara in sublime style. The substitute lobbed the stranded Awesu perfectly from 25 yards to level matters for a second time. Fulham had a huge let off two minutes later when Kaiser slipped as he tried to clear his lines but David Chigwara couldn’t put the ball in the empty net.
Substitute Tarrell Cavell forced a save from Awesu at the death but his team-mates were disappointed he tried to beat the in-form Hammers goalkeeper from an acute angle with Zepa, Dair or Evans available for a cut back.
The young Whites are next in action against Leicester City at Motspur Park on Saturday 29 March.
WEST HAM UNITED UNDER 18s (4-2-3-1): Awesu; Ebho, Scanlon, Kamara; Medine, Nwosu; Unwin (Hargan 61), Dike (Chigwada 73), Beckford (Sowumni 61); Landers (Balogun 73). Subs (not used): Hooper.
GOALS: Landers (16, 45).
FULHAM UNDER 18s (4-2-3-1): Kaiser; Walters, Picotto, Schutter (Taylor 45), Cooke; Chingwaro, Khan; Zepa, Grant (Cavell 74), Wingate (Evans 62); Dair. Subs (not used): Mayer, Hall.
BOOKED: Chingwaro.
GOALS: Wingate (pen 40), Evans (76).
