Town’s U18s suffered a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Coventry City at Playford Road on Saturday morning, despite playing against 10 men for most of the second half.
The visitors started the better side and after six minutes Cormac Burke was dispossessed in midfield and City striker Jonson Clarke-Harris hit a shot that rolled just wide of the post.
Moments later, Will Roberts rounded Cody Cropper in the Town goal but Jide Maduako got back to prevent the ball crossing the line.
However, Coventry took a deserved lead on ten minutes when Roberts’s dangerous right-wing cross was headed in by an unchallenged Clarke-Harris.
Town responded and Carel Tiofack hit a strong left-foot shot straight at Lee Burge before Burke’s freekick should have been converted by Josh Meekings or Tiofack.
On the half-hour Tiofack pulled the ball back and Burke nearly bundled the ball over the line, but Coventry right-back Aaron Phillips cleared the ball to safety.
Right on the stroke of half-time, Sky Blues’ centre-back Joe Henderson was booked for a foul on Burke and within minutes of the start of the second half, Henderson was sent off after clipping the heels of Tiofack on the right wing.
Despite the sending off, Town never really took control of the game and were hit on the counter-attack and conceded a second on 57. The visitors broke in numbers when a Town corner was cleared and Clarke-Harris hit a left-foot shot across Cropper and into the net.
The closest Town came to getting a goal back was when Joe Whight’s header hit a post before falling into the arms of the grateful keeper Burge.
Aaron Jones hit a shot just over with ten minutes remaining and with the visitors taking every opportunity to run the clock down, they held on for all three points.
It was a disappointing performance all round from Town’s youngsters, who certainly missed their influential Northern Ireland U21 international midfielder Josh Carson, who started for the first team against Scunthorpe later in the day.
U18s: Cropper, Bennett, McKeown, Jones, Meekings, Maduako, Whight, Acott, Lavery, Tiofack, Burke. Unused: October, Marsden, Marriott, Simmons, Hammond.
Report: James Ager