Tottenham Under 21s dominate pre-season friendly but cannot find a breakthrough
On Tuesday 18 July, the Tottenham Under-21s took on Enfield Town in a pre-season friendly which ended goalless.
The 0-0 stalemate between Town and Spurs’ academy side was played just down the road from the club’s training centre in front of a large crowd. It is an annual feature of both clubs’ calendars and proved no less popular this year.
Many of the academy’s brightest stars such as Nile John, Alfie Dorington and Dante Cassanova – all of whom recently signed new deals with the club – were on display during the match. Yago Santiago Alonso and Damola Ajayi, who were both recently spotted in first-team training in a post to the club’s Twitter page (12 July), also featured.
Hosts Enfield Town did not provide much for Spurs’ goalkeepers on the evening Aaron Maguire or Luca Gunter to think about and instead, it was Tottenham’s youngsters who dominated proceedings and had the majority of the chances.
Santiago and Cassanova both had chances throughout the first half, but neither could find the back of the net.
Town made plenty of changes at half-time but the story remained the same, it was Tottenham who looked the most likely to score, as captain Brooklyn Lyons-Foster shot was turned onto the post before Rio Kyerematen squandered his chance in the second half.
Enfield Town goalkeeper Adi Connolly, who came on as one of the half-time substitutes, was in inspired form as he denied chances from Kyerematen and Ajayi late on, with John also going close himself.
Opportunities came at both ends with minutes left to play but neither side could convert and the game ended level, much to the frustration of Spurs’ youngsters whose performance certainly deserved a victory.
Lilywhite Rose provided a teamsheet for the fixture via Twitter (18 July) with all of the players in Tottenham’s squad on the evening featuring at some point throughout the match.
Despite not getting the victory, the match provided a valuable run-out for Spurs’ youngsters as they got more minutes under their belt ahead of a new season beginning. For many who featured, they will have aims and expectations of beginning to break into the first-team picture next year and games like these certainly won’t do them any harm.
In other Tottenham news, in the club’s first-team pre-season friendly, these are three players who impressed.