Town Under-18s 2-0 Crawley Under-18s
The Hatters’ Under-18s ended their campaign in the Youth Alliance with a fine 2-0 victory over Crawley on Saturday to secure fifth place in the table.
The young Town had much more of the possession in the first half and created a number of chances throughout the half with Luke Trotman and Osamu Allman getting into good scoring positions on the end of some flowing moves but didn't get their shots off.
Ekene Amadi was foiled by the keeper after a mazy run into the box then he saw a close range header fly just over the bar before another good passing move and cross fell to Tyreeq Bakinson but he put his effort over the top.
Crawley, for their part, looked dangerous on the break and the Hatters defence had to be alert to stop the threat of a lively front pairing.
The deadlock was broken two minutes before the break when Bakinson fed Daril Ngwala as he cut in from the wing and the latter made no mistake with his strike into the bottom corner of the net.
The lead was doubled 13 minutes into the second half when a Ngwala corner was deflected into his own net by a Crawley defender when under pressure from Lucas Perry. Perry then nearly increased the lead from a strong run and shot but his effort cannoned back off of the post to safety.
Isaac Galliford returned to competitive action following a long term knee injury in place of the impressive James Justin and Geo Craig replaced Ekene Amadi as the game entered the final twenty minutes but the Hatters couldn't extend their lead further.
Youth team boss Paul Driver told lutontown.co.uk: "It was an extremely encouraging performance from what is effectively next season’s squad.
“We have had some time in the holidays to train as a group and the early signs are that the boys work well together and pick up quickly on what we are asking them to do. Our middle three of Justin, Bakinson and Allman did really well and we had much better movement up top than of late.
“A fifth place finish with over half of our games being wins is a very respectable return for the season given that we played well over half of it without the second year scholars - Ian Rees, Charlie Smith and Zane Banton, for example -haven't played for me since before Christmas.
“We finished with more points than last season and the clean ensured we have the best defensive record in the division which is a great achievement.”
Town: Whybrow, Trotman, Perry, Justin (sub Galliford) , Tamplin, Hawkes, Amadi (sub Craig), Ngwala, Amu, Allman, Bakinson. Subs not used: King, Atkinson Mosunda.