What happened
Goals from Maalik Hashi and Alex Marciniak were not enough to stop our under-21s suffering a first defeat of pre-season to St Albans City at Clarence Park.
Fielding a similar side to the one that played out a 2-2 draw against Boreham Wood in our opening match of 2025/26, it was the hosts who opened the scoring when Alex Hall netted after just two minutes.
The home side doubled their lead before 10 minutes when Ryley Scott headed home. Our youthful side looked to get back into the contest before half-time and we found the breakthrough on 21 minutes when 17-year-old Ceadach O’Neill won possession before feeding Hashi through who scored his second goal in as many pre-season games.
Kyron Thompson then went close twice but we couldn't find an equaliser before the interval.
Max Porter then made wholesale changes for the second half with many of our starters against Boreham Wood now coming onto the pitch for the second half against The Saints.
However, we were undone from two second half set pieces as St Albans extended their lead. First Jasper Mather nodded in before George Sippetts did the same from Troy Perez-Duah's cross.
We got back on the scoresheet in the 88th minute and it was another familiar scorer as Marciniak riffled his effort into the corner to continue his form in pre-season.
But it was the hosts who had the final say as Perez-Duah's deflected effort found its way past Jack Porter.
What’s Next
Our young Gunners are now jetting off to Austria to face Young Violets Austria Wien at 2pm on July 26.
Team News
St Albans City: Norman (Boxer 71), James (Kone 63), Gauthier (Ward 71), Fyfield (Sippetts 63), Page (Sweet 63), Dyer (Sery 63), Scott (Ralfe 63), Perez-Duah, Smart (Jennings 63), Wall (M.Scott 63), Mather (Trialist)
Arsenal: Nygaard (Porter 46), Hamill (King 46), Onyekachukwu (Clarke 46), Chapman (Ogunnaike 46), Ismail (Washington 46) , Murisa (Julienne 46), Hashi (Phillips 46), O'Neill (Marciniak 46), Sagoe Jr (Bailey-Joseph 46), Oyetunde (Zecevic John 46), Thompson (Ferdinand 46)
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