Under-18s enjoy Christmas cracker against Cottagers!

Reiss Elliott-Parris bagged his first Under-18s hat-trick as our Under-18s signed off for the calendar year with a superb 5-0 victory at Fulham on Saturday.

The forward opened his account from the penalty spot with Oliver Boast and Tye Hall joining him on the scoresheet as we dominated the first half-an-hour at Motspur Park, before adding two more after the break to earn himself an early Christmas present in the form of the match ball.

Fulham improved after the break and substitutes William Sutton-Bangura and Brodie Dair forced Blake Irow into impressive saves to preserve his clean sheet, but we were worthy winners overall in our final fixture of 2025 at this level.

It was the ideal response after Tuesday’s disappointing loss to Brighton & Hove Albion in the FA Youth Cup, with the players popping the ball around with zest and purpose from the off. We were also highly effective with our early corner kicks and after Malachi Hardy headed one over following a close-range effort from Ronny Moncur, that kind of set-piece featured in the build-up to each of our first three goals.

Elliott-Parris scored his ninth-minute penalty after being brought down in the box shortly following a corner, before Boast converted from close range 10 minutes later after Elijah Upson headed Harry Byrne’s set-piece delivery back across the six-yard box. And with only 25 minutes gone we were 3-0 up and firmly in control as Hall volleyed Byrne’s corner home at the back stick.

Fulham almost scored with their first meaningful attack just before the half-hour mark but a goal-line block from Tyler Tingey – operating as a right-back – denied striker Bashil Lubega at the near post. At the other end, Elliott-Parris curled wide with only goalkeeper Oliver Mayer to beat while Armend Muslika’s second attempt after a blocked free-kick was deflected over the bar as we sought to add to our advantage before half-time.

Fulham tightened up in midfield after the restart and Sutton-Bangura’s awkwardly-angled shot towards the near post was turned over the bar by Irow, but any hopes the home side had of mounting a comeback were extinguished on 62 minutes when Boast latched onto a loose ball on the right and squared for Elliott-Parris to score his second of the game.

Mid-way through the second half, the striker had his hat-trick, latching onto a ball in from the left by Leon Myrtaj, who had only been on the pitch for a few minutes, and poking low inside the far post. Dair’s long-range shot was brilliantly saved by Irow at full stretch as the Cottagers looked for a late consolation but even with a number of changes made, we stayed in the driving seat as Jamie Carr’s first win as Under-18s Coach arrived in emphatic fashion.

‘Pleased with the application’

Jamie was delighted with the players’ response in the wake of the midweek FA Youth Cup setback, telling us afterwards: “It's not easy coming off the back of a tough result and a lot of the lads had to go again and play significant minutes today, so I’m pleased for them from that point of view. I was pleased with the application – everyone worked really hard to defend our goal, which was a key focus today, and we got our reward in the end.

“In the last couple of weeks we’ve been working towards making progress in a couple of areas in particular and I thought the lads bought into it really well and executed some of the things we’ve been asking of them in terms of controlling the middle of the pitch – I think you could see that we created a number of chances from that. Obviously we saw a team that was willing to defend – we spoke a lot about that this week in terms of making sure we don’t ship poor goals – so I was really pleased with that as well.”

On Elliott-Parris’ first treble at this level, Jamie added: “It’s brilliant for him and again, he’s gone two games in a few days with quite a short turnaround, so it’s great from that perspective as well that he was able to score those goals.”