Heavy defeat for Under-21s at Plymouth

Our Under-21s endured a chastening evening on the south coast on Tuesday, crashing to a 6-2 defeat to a strong Plymouth Argyle side in the Vertu Trophy.

A disastrous first-half display did the damage at Home Park as the League One hosts surged into a 3-0 lead inside half-an-hour and added a fourth before the break, with our young team struggling to cope with the task at hand.

We improved considerably after the restart but were hit by a sucker punch on 53 minutes as Argyle’s Player of the Match Tegan Finn doubled his tally for the night to extend his side’s advantage, although Reiss Russell-Denny’s reply a few minutes later reminded the hosts we were still fighting.

We managed to get at Tom Cleverley’s side a lot more throughout the remainder of the game, but a cracking strike from Plymouth substitute Seb Campbell four minutes from time left us in danger of suffering our heaviest-ever defeat in the competition. Oli Irow’s stoppage-time goal ensured we avoided that fate, but with a solitary point on the board after two games in Southern Group B, we’ll need to beat Cheltenham Town on matchday three next month and hope other results go our way if we’re to make it through to the knockout stages.

We just couldn’t get going at all in the first period and were punished ruthlessly by the home side. Mathias Ross powered home a header from Finn’s corner inside five minutes and we almost conceded again in similar fashion a few minutes later, Brendan Wiredu’s header this time hitting the crossbar. Yusuf Akhamrich, our biggest outlet going forward, saw an angled shot saved between those efforts but that was about as good as it got for us in that period, Finn cracking home a half-volley after a throw-in from the left was only half-cleared on 20 minutes before Ayman Benarous nodded Finn’s cross back across the face of goal for Bim Pepple to make it three just eight minutes later.

Luca Gunter denied Pepple with two good low saves in quick succession but he was left powerless at the edge of his area four minutes prior to the break when Owen Oseni broke forward and took the ball around him before stroking into the empty net from the angle, leaving us with a mountain to climb even before the half-way stage of the game.

Akhamrich went close twice at the start of the second period as we looked a lot brighter, but we were caught out again on 53 minutes when substitute Owen Dale teed up Finn to tease a shot across goal and in off the far post following a break down the right side.

Akhamrich took matters into his own hands with a low shot from distance that was touched fractionally wide before his short pass to Russell-Denny saw the captain work himself into a shooting position and fire off a shot that squirmed under goalkeeper Conor Hazard to get us off the mark on 57 minutes. Despite a clear upturn in our performance, we couldn’t claw ourselves back into the game and our misery was compounded late on when Dale set up Campbell to blast emphatically into the roof of the net for 6-1.

We did manage to score a consolation two minutes into stoppage time when Harry Byrne’s throw-in was punched out by Hazard as far as Pele Arganese-McDermott, whose header back towards goal was fired home on the turn by Irow – a strike that ensured we equalled our heaviest margin of defeat in the competition and avoided setting an unwanted outright new record – but while it was the largest crowd our Under-21s have played in front of for some time with almost 5,000 fans in attendance, it was largely a night to forget for us.

Match data

Goals: Plymouth – Ross 5, Finn 20, 53, Pepple 28, Oseni 41, Campbell 86; Spurs – Russell-Denny 57, O Irow 90+2.

Yellow cards: Plymouth – Roberts 12, Galloway 51, Benarous 68; Spurs – Elliott-Parris 84.

Referee: Jacob Miles.

Venue: Home Park, Plymouth.

Weather: Clear sky, light winds, 14 degrees.

Attendance: 4,834.