A young Town U18 side, consisting mainly of first year scholars and schoolboys, lost 3-1 at home to Brighton on Saturday lunchtime. Sub Andre Dozzell netted his first Blues U18s goal in the second half.
Town keeper Sam McDermid was called into action early on when he gathered Will Collar's strike from distance at the second attempt.
Centre-back George Fowler came closer to opening the scoring about 10 minutes later when he connected with George Clarke's flick from a corner, but his close-range effort came back off the upright and was cleared.
However, the visitors countered and Jason Davis beat left-back Amon Walton Owen before pulling the ball back for Conor Pring to stroke home from the edge of the box.
Midway through the half, Cory Galvin sent in a low driven cross from the right which Cemal Ramadan slid in to meet at the back post, but he diverted it just wide.
The Seagulls doubled their advantage as the hour mark approached. Galvin conceded a needless foul and Jack Rowe-Hurst's powerful strike took a slight deflection and flew past McDermid into the roof of the net.
With just over 10 minutes remaining, 14-year-old Andre Dozzell, son of former Town star Jason, stepped up and curled a fine 25-yard freekick over the wall and past the despairing dive of keeper Josh Smith.
Just as the Blues started to push forward in search of an equaliser, Rowe-Hurst got the better of Fowler before cutting inside and hitting an effort into the bottom corner of McDermid's net.
The Town keeper did prevent Rowe-Hurst claiming his hat-trick with a fabulous save minutes later when he tipped the attacker's header onto his cross bar.
It was a game of few chances, but Brighton scored some good goals and probably deserved their win. Schoolboys Chris Smith and Kundai Benyu battled well in midfield, while Galvin again looked dangerous during his time on the pitch.
U18s: McDermid, Emmanuel, Walton Owen (Dozzell 71), Smith, Fowler, Robinson, Galvin (Jones 59), Benyu, G Clarke (Ford 46), Ramadan, Ellis.
Town's U21 side travelled to Cardiff this afternoon for tomorrow morning’s fixture against the Welsh side at the Cardff City Stadium (KO 11.30am). Alan Lee is the only senior player likely to be involved with Kyle Hammond, Matt Clarke and Omar Sowunmi amongst those making the trip. Jordan Adekunle misses out with a groin injury.