Colchester United U18s 3 Charlton U18s 3
Charlton's U18s shared the spoils with Colchester United on Saturday afternoon, as they drew 3-3 at Florence Park in Professional Development League.
The young Addicks went behind in the game and showed great character to turn it around before the U's levelled the scoring seconds before the final whistle.
The two sides remained evenly matched for the opening half an hour, with neither able to find a breakthrough. Charlton eventually took the lead on 35 minutes through Jayden Twum, who finished off a well-worked move. The ball was fed to Twum from out wide, and he drove towards goal before unleashing a powerful effort from just outside the area. His shot flew beyond goalkeeper Oscar Oarker and nestled into the top corner to put Charlton 1-0 up.
The away side’s lead lasted less than 10 minutes, with Colchester finding an equaliser a couple of minutes before half-time. A short corner was played into the box, but the young Addicks were unable to clear their lines. The ball was recycled back into the box before finding Donte Frank on the edge of the area, and he made no mistake with a first-time finish to level the scoring before the break.
Both teams came out of the blocks in the second half, with both goalkeepers being called into action. It would be Colchester who would put themselves ahead on 65 minutes, as Charlton trailed 2-1.
Jason Pearce's side responded well, pulling themselves level seven minutes later. Defender Taku Muvhuti found himself in some space in the penalty area, and drove a low shot across goal, that evaded Oarker and rolled into the bottom corner to make it 2-2.
The young Addicks were awarded a penalty kick in injury time that was converted by Kacper Podgorny, to give the away side their lead back with minutes left remaining.
It looked like Charlton were going to return to SE7 with another three points on the board, but conceded an equaliser at the death, and Jason Pearce's side had to settle for a point on the road.
The U18s are back in action on Saturday, October 10th, as they host Cardiff City's U18s at Sparrows Lane (1pm BST).
Charlton: Williams, Jones-Lartey (Laronde 55), Muvhuti, Simons, Reid (Grover-Smith 73); Thomas, Christian, Podgorny; Twum (Nelson-Martin 55), Jeche, Richman (De Castro 83)
Goals: Twum 35, Muvhuti 72, Podgorny 90+2
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