The U21 side succumb to two late goals which meant they had to settle for a draw in a hard-fought game at the JobServe Community Stadium on Tuesday.
The young U’s started the game incredibly strongly against Reading and in the opening ten minutes had the visitors pinned in their own half. This meant it didn’t take long for the first goal.
Ihionvien took up the role of the sole forward in the first half with Sayer and Redgrave acting as wingers. The goal came from the man up front, and it was a brilliant ball from Yates at left back that sent him through. The goal came in the sixth minute and the striker collected the ball with a lovely touch, his second was even better as he took the ball round the Reading goalkeeper and scored into an empty net.
The U’s didn’t slow down after the first goal went in, they kept their intensity high and two minutes later they doubled their lead. This time it was Ossama Ashley who was playing right back, a fantastic run from Harvey Sayer saw him beat three of the opposing players on his way towards the opposition box, he passed the ball onto Kai Redgrave who found space, playing a ball into the box. The cross was met by Ashley and a big deflection left the ‘keeper with no chance of stopping it.
Reading found their way into the game after twenty-five minutes of U’s dominance, showing flashes of what they could do on the counterattack, although nothing was coming from it as the U’s weren’t giving them an inch, every second ball was being pounced on by Lowe and Owens in the middle.
In the last minute of the first half Gene Kennedy robbed a Reading midfielder of possession in a dangerous area and found himself one-on-one with the ‘keeper, however there was some incredible tracking back and Kennedy was put under a lot of pressure, the defender doing just about enough to keep Kennedy from getting his shot on target, that was the last action of the first half and the U’s went into the break two goals to the good.
In the second half Reading were a much-improved side, it seemed that they should have pulled one back ten minutes into the second half, however a mis-controlled touch from the Reading attacker after a delicious ball into the box was cleared away quickly by the U’s.
Another chance beckoned for Reading as they started to gain a bit of control, but Ryan Lowe put in a fantastic last-ditch effort to stop Ehibhatiomhan from scoring.
The U’s held on well throughout the second half, not giving the visitors much in the way of chances or possession but as the time trickled down Reading were starting to find a few gaps in the defence. With ten minutes to go Ehibhatiomhan found his way through a resilient defence and struck past the Trialist in goal who really had no chance of saving it.
This helped the visitors gain some hope and they threw everything at the young U’s to get a result, with one minute to play they found their way through again, this time it was Akande’s turn to put a perfect shot past the Trialist, a well worked move saw the attacker beat Lowe with some lovely skill which earned the visitors a point. A tough one for the U’s to take after being so well organised all game.
Starting XI:
1. Trialist 2. Ossama Ashley 3. Matt Yates 4. Ryan Lowe 5. Trialist 6. Frankie Terry (C) 7. Kai Redgrave (Donell Thomas) 8. Gene Kennedy (Jake Hutchinson) 9. Brad Ihionvien (Kenny Mupomba) 10. Charlie Owens 11. Harvey Sayer
Unused Substitues:
Jayden Peglar, Frankie Edwards.