WHAT HAPPENED
We hosted Fulham in a fiercely contested draw at Meadow Park on Friday evening.
Under 21s boss, Mehmet Ali, opted for three changes to the line-up that drew 3-3 at home to Brighton & Hove Albion a week prior, with Bandeira, Lewis-Skelly and Nwaneri making way for Lino Sousa, Jack Henry-Francis and Catalin Cirjan.
The first half started as a quiet affair, with both teams offering even performances throughout. A few well-worked link-ups between Sousa and Charles Sagoe Jr couldn’t go unnoticed, but their efforts sadly amounted to very little.
A Cirjan foul at the 28-minute mark offered Fulham the chance to go 1-0 up but Hubert Graczyk read the move well and managed to get low enough to stop the shot.
With just over 10 minutes to go before the break, Bradley Ibrahim offered Sagoe Jr a perfectly weighted cross-field pass to link up with Khayon Edwards, but the final pass couldn’t quite find Sagoe Jr again to convert.
With everything to play for going into the second half, we started well. A press from Fulham high up the pitch found Ibrahim blocking a shot on the line. However, an unfortunate misread pass from Graczyk fell straight at the feet of Fulham midfielder, Luke Harris putting the visitors ahead after 70 minutes.
A late injury for Fulham goalkeeper, George Wickens, came at the 80-minute mark and with no substitutions left to make, their number 4, Charlie Robinson, found himself pulling on the gloves for the remainder of the game.
A massive eight minutes of added time gave us everything we needed to secure a point, with a 95th minute corner from Ben Cottrell swinging into the box for a perfectly placed James Sweet header to find the back of the net and bring us level in the dying moments of added time.
WHAT IT MEANS
The result sees us remain in seventh place with 31 points.
WHAT’S NEXT
Our next game sees us face Everton at Haig Avenue in our penultimate Premier League 2 fixture on Friday, April 28.
Kick-off is at 7pm (UK).
TEAM NEWS
Arsenal: Graczyk, Sweet, Ibrahim (Nwaneri, 74), Monlouis (c), Sousa, Henry-Francis (Lewis-Skelly, 65), Cirjan, Cottrell, Cozier-Duberry, Sagoe Jr, Edwards
Subs not used: Cooper, Robinson, Bandeira
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