Ryan Williams’ late equaliser rescued a point for Fulham’s Under-21s in an enthralling encounter at Middlesbrough.
The Australian winger delighted Kit Symons with a composed finish as time ticked away as Fulham threatened to throw away a terrific start. England youth international Cauley Woodrow had given the Londoners’ a dream start in the first minute turning home a dangerous cross from Sean Kavanagh, but some sloppy defending saw Middlesbrough in front by half-time.
It took just three minutes for Curtis Main to take advantage of some slack marking and rifle home and the home side took a deserved lead just before the break courtesy of a clever finish from Luke Williams. Fulham were indebted to three excellent saves from Jesse Joronen which kept them in the contest and the Finnish goalkeeper even kept out one goalbound effort after Williams had levelled the contest late on.
Symonds told the official website:
We had the momentum and we were the better side in the second half so I was delighted when Ryan popped up to make it 2-2. The tempo of our passing was much better, but Middlesborough had a couple of good chances too and we’ve got Jesse to thank for a great save late on to keep it level.
The only disappointing thing was the nature of the goals we conceded. We lost concentration and they were very sloppy which is very annoying as otherwise it was a good performance. We started brilliantly, scoring the early goal, then conceded those two really sloppy goals which I’m not happy about, but we responded well and finished the game strongly.
FULHAM U21s: Joronen; Grimmer, Kavanagh, Passley, Burgess; Smith, Minkwitz, Altman, Williams; David, Woodrow. Subs: Grainger, Donegan, Christensen, Islamovic.
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