U18 team suffers defeat against Villa | Tottenham Hotspur

Our best period of the game came around the 70th minute mark when there was a flurry of chances – Williams-Barnett's turn-shooting shot was well parried to the left by goalkeeper Sam Lewis, before a lovely ball from influential substitute Ronny Moncur ended up in front of goal and George Feeney's effort at the far post was saved by the goalkeeper. Seconds later, Lehane went even closer when his lovely shot from distance rebounded onto the woodwork, but Williams-Barnett could only put the rebound over the bar after it came to him at an awkward angle.

We were punished with 10 minutes to go when Burrowes scored from the edge of the box, but despite both goalkeepers making crucial saves in the dying moments, there was no comeback for our young players on a disappointing day.

“We dominated the game in the second half”

Under-18s coach Stuart Lewis felt we should have taken advantage of the moments when we were in control. He said: “I thought we started the game pretty confident in the first 10 minutes, we were in control but we couldn't carry that momentum into the rest of the first half, lost too many one-on-ones, just got into positions a bit too late and overall it wasn't at the level we demand and have shown over the last few weeks. That was disappointing but in the second half we dominated the game although unfortunately we got hit on the counter.”

“We didn't score when we had the game under control and it was disappointing not to get on the scoreboard. The final moment was missing, which we've done really well in the last few weeks where we've scored a lot of goals in the league, but there were some positives from the second-half performance – we played to our identity, were more attacking, more dynamic in our movements and caused them some real problems in the second half but we just lacked that final moment to get on the scoreboard. I think if we'd scored one it could have been two or three but we didn't, so we'll reflect on the game and face West Brom at home on Tuesday in the U17 League Cup.”