Town's U18s were beaten 3-2 in their latest pre-season friendly at Stevenage on Saturday morning, despite second-half goals from Dylan Crowe (pictured) and Brett McGavin.
After seeing out some early pressure from the hosts, Albert Wilton's ball into the box found Lounes Foudil but the Frenchman's initial looping effort rebounded off the woodwork and his follow-up header was just about cleared off the line by the home defence.
Town fell behind shortly before the half-hour mark, however, when a short corner from the left was played to Marcus Gouldbourne and the pacy winger curled the ball into the far top corner of the net.
A minute later, striker Claudio Ofosu broke through Town's backline and hit a shot which cannoned off the foot of a post and keeper Toby Egan then did well to push an effort from Andronicos Georgiou away for a corner.
Town couldn't have come much closer to levelling the scores before the break - the Stevenage keeper was lucky not to see red when he handled outside his area with Wilton through on goal and the resultant freekick from McGavin struck the bar. Somehow Foudil then lifted the ball over after reacting quickest to the rebound.
Both sides again hit the woodwork within 10 minutes of the restart; trialist Rob Harvey came close for the Blues after a quick break before Georgiou ran unchallenged and hit a left-foot shot off the bottom of the near post.
However, Alan Lee's side did pull themselves level on the hour when Harvey's cut-back from the left was side-footed into the net first time by Crowe, who had been playing on the right side of a midfield four.
Stevenage regained their lead just seven minutes later though when the dangerous Georgiou hit a powerful low shot across Egan and into the far corner of the net.
The Blues rallied again and grabbed their second equaliser on 71 - a tricky run from Armando Dobra resulted in him being tripped in the area and McGavin calmly dispatched the spotkick.
The home side hit back and took the lead for the third and final time four minutes later when centre-back Charlie O'Keefe was left unmarked and bundled the ball home from close range following Georgiou's left-sided freekick.
Egan did well to tip another effort from the hosts onto the woodwork late on, but despite some late pressure Town weren't able to find another goal.
It was a good workout for the young Blues but they should have done better defensively with at least two of the three goals the home side scored.
The U18s start their league season with a game against Nottingham Forest at Playford Road on Saturday 19th August (KO midday).
U18s: Egan, Ronan, Barley (Clements 76), Dobra, Marshall (Henry 81), Ndaba (Vega 81), D Crowe, McGavin, Wilton (Brown 46), Harvey (Hughes 65), Foudil.