Our under-18s lost 1-0 away to Hitchin Town on Saturday afternoon, George Morrall’s early goal enough to separate the sides.
Khari Ranson was called into action early on, tipping the ball over the bar from Lewis Franklin. He then volleyed it high above the goal before the home side did open the scoring with a tap-in from Morrall.
After gliding through the midfield, Max Dowman saw a pass deflected into James Callan’s gloves, before Hitchin came close to a second goal when a long ball caught out our defence, but Coree Wilson lobbed it over.
Daniel Oyetunde played Andre Annous through on goal in the 35th minute and he had the ball in the back of the net, but the flag went up for offside.
Ranson made a good save to stop a free-kick from 20 yards on the brink of half-time and we went into the break a goal behind.
Jhai Dhillon struck just wide from the edge of the 18-yard box as Hitchin went close again in the second half before Ranson held onto a volley from a corner.
Alex Marciniak cut in and curled an effort just wide in a bid to respond with an equaliser, but Ranson again had to make a save at the other end to deny a volley by Jack Dreyer.
Dowman again looked like our most likely outlet as he dribbled past the Hitchin defence, but he saw his effort saved as we were unable to find an equalising goal.
Hitchin Town XI: Callan, Franklin (Syme 71), Deall (Dhillon 56), Rolfe, Sears, Jones (Kpakpe 64), Dreyer, Forbes (Devine 76), Wilson (Keane 60), Morrell, Titchmarsh (Barker 71).
Substitutes (not used): Brooks.
Arsenal XI: Ranson, Salmon, Ogunnaike (Casey 68), Onyekachukwu (Sampang 68), Kuczynski (Akolbire 68), Murisa (Sweet 68), Oyetunde (Shuaib 68), Marciniak (Copley 68), Annous (Adams 68), Dowman, O’Neill (Clairmont 68).
Substitutes (not used): Gyasi.
Copyright 2024 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.
