Match Recap: Fulham u23s 1-1 Leeds United u23s

Leeds United’s under-23s picked up a point away to Fulham u23s at The London School of Economics with Sam Greenwood hitting his tenth goal of the season.

The Whites lined up without their top-scorer, Joe Gelhardt who is looking to hunt down The PL2 top-scorer award. The team did include Sam Greenwood and Crysencio Summerville who featured on the bench for the seniors against Manchester United.

Jamie Shackleton also came into the side while the team are without Charlie Cresswell who was sent off against Aston Villa while Max Dean, Charlie Allen and Kris Moore stepped up from the under-18s to make the bench.

Fulham would’ve taken the lead in seconds had it not been for Elia Caprile between the sticks, as a Nohan Kenneh mistake put Fabio Carvalho in the clear just six yards from goal. He tried to slip it past Caprile at the near post, but the young Italian pulled off a good save low to his left to keep the score at 0-0.

And thank goodness for that, because Sam Greenwood scored just a couple of minutes later to give Leeds the lead. The corner-kick was sent in and evaded the crowd in the penalty area to meet Greenwood on the far side of the box. He turned his man well before smashing the ball into the roof of the net from a tight angle as he hit 10 goals for the season.

Greenwood should’ve grabbed his second of the game on 12 minutes as Summerville slipped the ball into Jamie Shackleton inside the right channel of the box. He squared it into Greenwood who had the goal at his mercy, but he fluffed his lines and the ball ended up trickling wide.

Despite the youngsters’ dominance, Fulham snatched an equaliser from very little as half-time approached. Corner-kick from the right, Connor McAvoy rises highest and plants an excellent header into the top-right corner, simple as you like.

Leeds made a triple substitution at half-time, replacing Jamie Shackleton, Sam Greenwood and Crysencio Summerville with Charlie Allen, Niall Huggins and Max dean.

The second-half was a sloppy one from the champions, with Fulham getting the better of things throughout. The Londoners came close when hitting the post from outside of the box with the keeper just about beaten. Max Dean then had to clear the ball off the line from a corner-kick which would’ve been a certain goal if not for the young attacker being well-placed on the goalline.

Fulham came very close again with less than five minutes to go as their number 9 went through on goal despite looking offside. His first effort was well saved by the oncoming Caprile, but the headed rebound went over the keeper and dinked off the top of the bar and behind.

Max Dean had a great chance to snatch the three points late-on as McCarron took a clattering to shift the ball out wide to Huggins. He cut inside and chopped a pass into the path of a completely open Max Dean who opened his body up and fired back across goal but the keeper read him well and caught the ball.

In the end, it wasn’t the greatest of performances from the Leeds u23s in comparison to their stellar title-winning season, but they’ve already done the job and that’s the main thing.