Manchester United’s u21s were in action last night as they played hosts to Fulham and looked for their first win of the season.
Team news included trialist, Ollie Bray, starting up top after featuring against Everton last week and Tom Huddlestone’s first involvement on the bench.
An early opportunity came for Fulham as Isak Hansen-Aaroen lost possession in midfield and Fulham broke quickly down the right to force Radek Vitek to push the ball wide for a corner.
Still in the opening five minutes and Vitek made an amazing save after Fuham’s Harvey Araujo rose for a free header in the middle of the box.
Minutes later Fulham had a huge chance to take the early lead when a cross from the right looped to Adrion Pajaziti, who was open at the back post for a clear shot on goal, but he took his eye off it and miskicked to waste the opportunity.
United’s first effort came soon after through Omari Forson creating some space at the edge of the box despite being surrounded by Fulham defenders but he soared the shot into the stands.
In the 15th minute, Fulham took the lead through Pajaziti who didn’t make the same mistake again. The cross from the left couldn’t be cleared fully by Tyler Fredricsom and perfectly teed up Pajaziti to smash into the top right corner, giving Vitek no chance.
United looked to respond quickly with some sharp interplay to feed Forson into the box but his shot was blocked and follow up attempts from Dan Gore and Kobbie Mainoo were also blocked.
In the 25th, a great diagonal ball from Charlie Wellens found Gore running in behind and was taken down well by the midfielder who turned and scuffed his shot which rolled wide in the end.
Shortly after Wellens played another nice ball, this time clipped down the right channel for Ollie Bray to latch onto but the trialist miscontrolled the ball and lost the chance.
United would equalise in the 34th minute, Bray’s pressing from the front forced the turnover in Fulham’s area allowing Bray to cut back for Forson to side foot into the top left corner with precision and power.
The score remained 1-1 going into the break with United turning things around in the final 15 minutes after a poor start.
A minute after the break, Fulham restored their lead. The cross from the left to the back post was allowed in too easily by Wellens and was tapped in by Terry Ablade who got in behind Björn Hardley who’s complaints of offside were brushed off by the ref.
Gore clipped the ball out wide to Forson and followed his pass for the return ball to strike from 20 yards but couldn’t get over it and sent it into the stands.
A minute later, Gore was slipped through centrally by Wellens to run through a huge gap for a great chance that the skipper should have done better with as he rolled it wide of the right post.
Gore played through Bray on the left who tried to catch the keeper out with a quick snapshot with the outside of the boot that was denied by a great save.
Fulham were heavily on top in the second half but the introduction of Huddlestone added some much needed control to United’s game, allowing them to get on the front foot.
The move would prove successful as the sustained pressure would lead to pulling the score back in the dying seconds. In the fourth minute of stoppage time Logan Pye’s cross was cleared to Huddlestone at the edge of the box and the experienced midfielder laid it off for a world class strike from Forson into the top right corner to secure a point for United.
United: Vitek, Wellens (Pye 86), Bennett, Fredricson, Hardley, Mainoo, Savage (Huddlestone 71), Forson, Gore, Hansen-Aaroen, Bray (McNeill 63)
Unused subs: Mastny, Kambwala
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