Goals from Farhaan Ali Wahid and Macaulay Zepa helped Fulham’s under 18s beat Southampton 2-1 this afternoon on their long-awaited return to league action.
The Whites made a strong start on a sunny afternoon at Motspur Park with Seth Ridgeon showing off his silky skills to find a shooting angle in the Southampton area but the midfielder’s eventual effort didn’t carry the necessary power to unduly trouble Oscar Abbotson. The Saints certainly came to play as well Harry Gathercole testing out Dino Kaiser’s reflexes with a speculative shot from the edge of the box.
The visitors came extremely close to opening the scoring on the half hour mark with Gathercole forcing a fine save from Kaiser with his first attempt before the winger struck the woodwork with the follow up. Tino Goremusandu missed a great chance at the far post shortly after coming on for the Saints and the away side would have felt they should have gone in ahead at half time after James Martin drilled over the bar from twenty yards out.
Martin came even closer after the interval forcing another good save out of Kaiser with a curling shot, but Fulham sped down the other end and made their opponents pay for failing to take their chances. Ali Wahid scored his third goal in two games – curling a fine effort into the bottom corner after cutting in from the left flank.
The goal certainly galvanised Ali Melloul’s young side as they began to dominate proceedings and carve out a succession of good scoring opportunities. Tom Wingate tested Abbotson with a whipped shot before the goalkeeper galloped off his line and remained big to deny Aidan Evans as the substitute bore down on the Southampton goal.
It was left to the talented Zepa to make the points save with eleven minutes remaining. The French winger finished off a fine Fulham break, slipping a lovely low finish under Abbotson after he had been played in by the excellent Ali Wahid.
Saints striker Nicolas Oyekunle set up a nail-biting conclusion when he converted a defence-splitting ball from midfielder Aston Daley deep into added time, but Fulham held on to claim a precious three points.
FULHAM UNDER 18s (4-2-3-1): Kaiser; Walters, Picotto, Cooke, Schutter; Khan, Ridgeon; Zepa (Faux 81), Ali Wahid, Wingate (Sutton-Bangura 90); Lubega (Evans 45). Subs (not used): Varney, Hall.
BOOKED: Sutton-Bangura.
GOALS: Ali Wahid (54), Zepa (79).
SOUTHAMPTON UNDER 18s (4-2-3-1): Abbotson; Adjei-Alfriyie, Sewell (Sheaf 70), Dobson-Ventura, Okonola-Matthews; Martin, Daley; Gathercole, Sillah Dibaga, Rodella (Kievi 67); Oyekunle. Subs (not used): Shombe, Frederick, Goremusandu.
BOOKED: Sewell, Dobson-Ventura, Sheaf.
GOAL: Oyekunle (90+3).
REFEREE: Marcin Indyk.
