Joe Deeney has shared his delight in the excellent learning opportunity his side faced after the thrilling 3-3 draw with local rivals Stevenage at The Brache.

A late finish from Dawid Gawel earned Town a point in a feisty affair, saving Deeney’s young side from a third straight defeat following tough results against Cambridge and Northampton.

The Under-18’s lead coach said: “We go back to it all the time, restarts and set pieces are going to be huge for these boys in their careers. If you think that four of the six goals today came from set pieces, it was disappointing with the way we conceded and despite the fact there’s been six goals today, I think the game lacked any real quality.

“It’s a great learning curve in terms of things that we preach all the time, in terms of intensity it was miles better today than it was against Northampton before the festive break, but that couldn’t have got much worse either.

"I suppose it was like what you’d expect a derby to be, it was two teams with chaotic play; there was a lot of turnovers, a lot of things off the ball, from a neutral point of view it was an entertaining game.”

Goals from Samuel Hincapie-Alfonso and Rufus Barnes had put the Hatters into the lead at half-time, before the visitors managed to hit back in the second half with two goals of their own to lead for the first time.

The young Town side fought back well and earned their point in the 90th minute as a last minute corner was swung in towards the far post for Barnes to nod back across goal, finding Gawel who provided an exquisite, improvised finish on the half-volley which found the top corner.

Speaking further on how the result helps the young Hatters, Deeney stated: “I keep preaching that while we are a young team, we all know that the job is pushing these players towards Jack and the first team.

“They kept pushing and fighting and Rufus Barnes has done brilliantly at the far post to head it across goal, a lot of defenders go for goal at the angle, but he has the foresight to put it back into a dangerous area and Dawid scores with a fabulous finish.”

Words by: Liam Wilmot