West Bromwich Albion’s under 18s made it three wins in a row as they beat Fulham 2-1 in Walsall this afternoon.
The Whites began brightly with Aaron Loupalo-Bi clipping the crossbar with a clever individual effort from just inside the penalty area, but they paid the penalty for a mistake from goalkeeper Dino Kaiser, whose heavy touch allowed Eseosa Sule to follow up his hat-trick against West Ham last weekend, to roll a straightforward finish into the empty net. The Baggies doubled their lead midway through the first half when Divine Onyemachi headed home from a corner, with the referee Mark Billingham ignoring Kaiser’s pleas that he had been impeded.
Billingham did disallow a potential third Albion goal from another corner, but Fulham had a mountain to climb. Ollie Goffrd hit the post before half time and Tom Olyott saw a second half-penalty saved by Louis Brady after Farhaan Ali Wahid had been felled in the area.
Fulham kept pushing and substitute Tom Wingate scored his first under-18s goal deep into stoppage time when he converted a cross from Ali Wahid after a flowing move down the right, but the Baggies held on to claim all three points.
WEST BROMWICH ALBION UNDER 18s (4-2-3-1): Brady; Kirton, Humphries, Dupont, Morrish; Mandey (Cherchi 79), Deeming; Walker, Onyemachi (Chimeziri 64), Kone (Beedle 65); Sule (Maughan 90+2). Subs (not used): Wilkes.
BOOKED: Dupont.
GOALS: Sule (4), Oneymachi (21).
FULHAM UNDER 18s (4-2-3-1): Kaiser; Tabares (Wingate 45), Slade, Nsasi, Amissah; Nwoko, Olyott; de Jesus, Ali Wahid, Gofford; Loupalo-Bi. Subs (not used): Varney, Park, Platel, Zepa.
GOAL: Wingate (90+4).
REFEREE: Mark Billingham.
We did get one back in stoppage time when substitute Wingate got off the mark for the 18s. It was a nice team move down the right hand side, culminating in Ali Wahid teeing up Wingate, but time was against us in our quest for an equaliser.
We did get one back in stoppage time when substitute Wingate got off the mark for the 18s. It was a nice team move down the right hand side, culminating in Ali Wahid teeing up Wingate, but time was against us in our quest for an equaliser.
