U's youngsters end on a high
The U’s U21s finished the campaign with a 2-1 win over Brentford.
Connor Hubble put Richard Hall's side ahead on twenty six minutes, before German lashed in an equaliser for the visitors.
The winner came on sixty eight minutes, when Freddie Ladapo rounded the keeper and slotted home.
Hall's young players started on the front foot and there was only four minutes on the clock when their first sight of goal came.
Michael O’Donoghue got down the left flank, his cross was cleared to the edge and Connor Hubble’s strike was saved by Taylor
On ten minutes, Kaine Shepherd found himself in space and his effort was well tipped over by Taylor.
Four minutes later, a short corner led to Jordan Sanderson firing wide, with the U’s midfielder then having a cross cleared a couple minutes later.
Shepherd had another shot from distance, this one flying narrowly over, before the Bees had their first opportunity on the break.
The ball fell to Norris but he was wide with an attempted lob over U’s keeper Shaun Phillips.
Connor Hubble broke the deadlock on twenty six minutes, as he sidefooted home after a great run and cut back from Tosin Olufemi.
It was no more than the young U’s deserved and realistically, it should have been more with the football being played.
Shepherd with a couple of efforts, Sanderson with a great strike wide and an O’Donoghue effort saved at the near post could easily have increased the lead for Hall’s youngsters.
They were punished for not adding a second, with an equaliser on the break for the visitors.
The ball was given away in the U’s penalty area and as it fell to German, he lashed it into the roof of the net to make it 1-1.
the half time whistle went with the scores level but it was an encouraging half for the young U’s.
The second period started in the same vein as the first, with the U’s creating most of the early chances.
A Hubble strike was heading goalwards until a deflection took it wide and then he headed over from a Sanderson cross.
At the other end, a break ended with Phillips having to make a smart save after he had given the ball away himself.
Just before the hour mark, Hall made a triple substitution, bringing on Jack Simmons, Ryan Melaugh and Sammy Szmodics.
In the sixty eighth minute, the U’s again took the lead as Freddie Ladapo scored with a simple finish.
There was work to be done still though when he picked the ball up from a poor back pass by Pilburn but he calmly rounded Taylor and passed the ball into the empty net.
Brentford almost equalised immediately, but Norris headed wide when well placed.
Long range shots failed to hit the target at either end, before Norris was wayward with two more efforts as the visitors looked to get back in the game.
Szmodics could have made the game safe on a couple of occasions in the final ten minutes, first shooting wide from the edge and then hitting over from a cross from Olufemi.
The game finished just after Szmodics’ second effort so the U21s followed the first team in finishing the season with a win.