White's double sees off Fulham Under-18s

A brace from Harvey White helped our Under-18s get their year off to the perfect start with a 4-1 Under-18 Premier League win over Fulham on Saturday morning.

Taking the lead on 17 minutes at Hotspur Way via the midfielder’s spot-kick, our youngsters quickly extended their advantage to 3-0 in the opening minutes of the second half thanks to Romaine Mundle's first goal of the season (46) and a second penalty from White (54). Fulham did pull a goal back with 12 minutes to go through Jean-Pierre Tiehi but we replied almost immediately with substitute Tarrelle Whittaker restoring our three-goal advantage to seal the win just four minutes later.

The match may have finished with a commanding scoreline in our favour but for the opening quarter-of-an-hour of the encounter, it had been anyone’s game. However, when Max Robson was brought down in the box by Aprion Pajaziti, we took control of the proceedings as White lashed home the resultant spot-kick.

From there, we pushed forward in the game with a certain vigour, aggressive on the high press but controlled in our challenge, Mundle and J’Neil Bennett providing the width while Robson and Rafferty Pedder worked tirelessly behind front man Kion Etete.

It was the work of Bennett that created our next big chance on 27 minutes. The winger latched onto a searching diagonal ball, burst past his man and into the box but could only divert his drilled effort into the side netting. Then, 10 minutes later, it looked like we had doubled our lead but centre-back Malachi Fagan-Walcott was adjudged to have been off-side when he headed in.

The pressure was continuing to mount and there was a feeling that our second of the afternoon wasn’t far off. Just seconds after we kicked off for the second half, that vital goal duly came. Once again, Bennett was creating the danger on the left and when he picked out fellow winger Mundle in the box, he had the simple task of just picking his spot and converting.

It was an important time to score and seemed to get our tails up even more, so much so that just eight minutes later, we had our third. Bennett once more was wreaking havoc on Fulham’s right side, twisting and turning with such agility that when he slipped into the box, he drew a foul and we were awarded our second penalty of the day. White stepped up once more to thrash the ball home.

As the game moved into its final half-an-hour, our visitors did start to come back at us. Defensively, we had remained composed throughout the match and when any danger had emerged, we had been able to snuff it out quickly and clear our lines. However, on 70 minutes, Fulham knocked on the door for the first time, clipping the frame of the goal and then eight minutes later, they found their way through, forward Tiehi profiting off the endeavour of Michael Olakigbe to pull one back for his side.

Yet, we moved quickly to restore our lead back to three. Substitute Whittaker was the scorer with the creativity coming once more from Bennett to polish off a fantastic team performance and seal a comfortable win.

Key moment

To double our advantage within just 60 seconds of the second period starting was a crucial moment in the game. It put the direction of proceedings firmly in our hands, giving us the confidence to kick on and make it back-to-back league wins at this level.

Coach’s view

Under-18s boss Matt Taylor was delighted with his side’s display against second-placed Fulham, especially in the second half, as we cantered home. And, comparing the performance to the reverse fixture from the first matchday of the season when we had suffered a 4-0 defeat away to the west London side, he was pleased with how the team executed the game plan.

“What we did was use that defeat earlier on in the season to try and get the boys in the right frame of mind for the game today,” he explained. “I thought we set out our stall exceptionally early today and I’m really pleased for the group of players that they’ve managed to get a very convincing home win against a Fulham team that beat us too easily on the opening day of the season. Today it was a performance from the players that, in the first half, was good but it was excellent in the second half – the only blip on the display was the fact we conceded a goal, taking the gloss off what was a very good performance.

"We had a specific game plan going into the match and the boys managed to implement that. What we knew from playing Fulham earlier in the season was that they are very organised and they are at the top end of the division for a reason – they play good football and they have good players. We had to match that today and I thought there were some stand-out performances from individuals… in fact, I could go through the whole team. It was a performance that was needed and hopefully we’ve now got a chance to take some momentum into the FA Youth Cup fixture against Wigan this week.”