Oxford United's Under-18s lost 3-1 to AFC Wimbledon in the Youth Alliance Cup, as they exited the cup competition in the preliminary round.
A young squad travelled to London on Tuesday with six Under-16s being named in the squad and three getting starts. Maeson Vaughan and Archie Payne were handed their first starts for the side and Hayden Vaughan was in the line-up once again.
United arrived in London after a journey in the extreme summer heat with temperatures rising all the way up to 32 degrees Celsius. Things didn’t exactly get any easier for the U’s as the heat wasn’t the only thing they had to acclimatise to as they now had to stage a comeback once again after conceding in the third minute.
It didn’t take long this time round for the U’s to get back into it with Mubarak Abolade intercepting a pass from the keeper and finishing into an empty net to get the first goal of the season for the Under-18s.
Water breaks were in play for the London scorcher, and it seemed the break in play benefitted the hosts as two minutes later they regained their lead. The Wimbledon winger caused more problems down the right and beat Will Jackson with a tidy finish to make it 2-1.
Hayden Vaughan came the closest to finding the leveler for United, denied by a strong save from the Dons keeper which meant we went into the break behind.
Neither side had great spells in the early stage of the second half and United struggled to create any definitive chances to test the Dons keeper.
The second drinks break was seen as a chance to rotate the side and bring on Kesh Purcell and Ethan Dickinson to try and make a difference, however the break once again proved an advantage to Wimbledon who capitalised on a mistake at the back and put the game to bed.
Defeat for the Young U’s means we bow out at the first hurdle of the Youth Alliance Cup.
United: Jackson, Payne, Osborne, Collins, Trialist, Appiah, Abolade, Holton, Dourish (Purcell 70), H. Vaughan (Andrews 84), M. Vaughan (Dickinson 70)
Unused sub: Clayton
