1-0 defeat for youngsters.
The U’s young U21s have been narrowly beaten 1-0 by Cardiff City.
A cagey first half saw a number of long range efforts by both sides but neither keeper was beaten.
Early in the second, Cardiff scored the only goal of the game through a Tom James header and the U’s couldn’t find an equaliser.
The start of the game saw the visitors edging possession but their early efforts didn’t cause too many problems for U’s keeper Danny bones.
First, he was right behind a long range effort from Johnson and then he watched on as Pattern hit the side-netting with an angled shot.
The best effort from the U’s in the first twenty minutes came from Byron Lawrence at the end of a flowing move through the centre of the pitch.
Louis Dunne, Alex McQueen and Callum Harrison were all involved, before Wilson in the Cardiff goal had to tip away Lawrence’s effort from outside the penalty area.
James for Cardiff was taking every opportunity to look for a shot and after having one effort palmed away, he headed narrowly wide before hitting a free kick well over the bar from just outside the box.
The U‘s had the final attack of the half but Dunne’s shot from distance flew straight into Wilson’s hands seconds before the referee flew the whistle for half time.
Dunne was involved in the first goalmouth action of the second half as well, cleverly finding Lawrence from a quickly taken short corner.
The U’s midfielder, who was getting on the ball at every opportunity, drilled a low shot goalwards but Wilson reacted well to save.
The visitors opened the scoring on fifty minutes, with Ben Turner rising highest to head home from a right wing corner.
Burgess was booked for a challenge on the edge, and James’ free kick strike was deflected for the all important set piece.
The first U’s change came six minutes later, with George Brown replacing Lee Harding who had had a difficult night against his more experienced right back.
Decarrey Sheriff and Cameron James entered the fray on sixty one minutes, replacing Macauley Bonne and Alex McQueen respectively.
In the final stages, Callum Harrison was driving forward from midfield and was unlucky on two occasions.
First, he shot wide from another long range effort and then he sliced his right footed effort wide of the target.
Those were the final chances for the young U’s to find an equaliser, and the whistle went with the visitors taking a narrow 1-0 victory back home to South Wales.