U18s: Aston Villa 2-3 Arsenal

Aston Villa’s Under-18s fell to a cruel 3-2 defeat against Arsenal at Bodymoor Heath on Saturday.

Goals from Villa’s Taylor-Jay Hart and Finley Munroe and Arsenal’s Mauro Bandeira and Josh Robinson meant that the game was locked at 2-2 going into stoppage time, but Charles Sagoe Jr got the winner for the visitors in the 94^th minute.

The Villa opener came at the end of a 15-pass move inside the opening 10 minutes, with Hart taking advantage of hesitancy from the Arsenal goalkeeper to latch on to Munroe’s pass and slot home.

Chisom Afoka had a shot saved soon after, before another flowing move ended with Kahrel Reddin having an effort roll wide of the post.

Villa’s momentum was halted when a foul on James Sweet resulted in an Arsenal penalty, but James Wright saved brilliantly from Billy Vigar, with his teammates following up to clear the danger.

Wright made a couple of more comfortable saves before Arsenal got their equaliser just before half-time, with Bandeira firing low into the bottom corner from the edge of the area.

The visitors then took the lead eight minutes after the break through Robinson, whose shot was low and found its way into the net via the post.  

Dewain Sewell directed a header just off target as Villa searched for a way back into the game, with Wright forced into another neat save at the other end to keep out Mathaeus Roberts’ well-struck free-kick.

Munroe got the Villa leveller as the game moved towards the final 10 minutes as his in-swinging corner beat everyone and found the corner of the net.

The home side were good value for a point but Arsenal struck on the counter-attack in the dying moments, with Sagoe Jr finishing clinically after advancing down the left-hand channel.