The Hatters Under-18s’ perfect start to the season was ended on Saturday as Joe Deeney’s side went down 3-0 at Forest Green Rovers.

The Town missed several good chances in the first half when Darren Frimpong-Kwakye and Dawid Gawel went close.

Goalless at the break, it was a different story in the second half. Forest Green took the lead shortly before the hour when the Town failed to clear their lines from a cross.

As the Hatters chased an equaliser, half-chances fell their way, but they could not find a way through and Rovers made it 2-0 eight minutes from time.

Despite trying to get back into the game in the final moments, the home side made the game safe in injury time to end the Town’s unbeaten start to the season.

“Defeats always hurt but we’ll learn from this,” Deeney said afterwards. “On occasions this season we’ve been sloppy but got out of jail with some of the results but this was a game too far.

“We never got control of the game and made too many poor decisions.

“Forest Green were worthy winners but we’re looking forward to getting back to training as there’s a lot of work to do before we go to Exeter on Saturday.”

Town: Booth, Asamoah Jnr, Anson, Barnes, Kiala, El Gourja, Gawel, Passley-James, Hincapie-Alfonso, Frimpong-Kwakye.

Subs: Flynn, Ed-Okungbowa, Lesser, Knote-Reed, Norford.