Birmingham City U18s 2 Brentford U18s 1 | OneFootball

Brentford suffered their first loss of the season following a narrow 2-1 defeat to Birmingham City on Saturday.

Birmingham had the better of the opening half and found themselves a goal up inside the opening five minutes. The home side struck again as Brentford went into the break two goals down, a Kaya Halil penalty saw the Bees put on some late pressure but Birmingham held out for the win.

Lydia Bedford’s side were looking to continue their perfect start to the season following wins over Coventry City and Wigan Athletic in their first two games.

The young Bees got off to the worst possible start as the hosts took an early lead just two minutes in through Briar Bateman.

Brentford grew into the match and began playing some good football, Domeiro Bobb-Semple came close with a shot from outside the box, but his strike went just over.

Birmingham doubled their lead just before the half hour mark after dispossessing the visitors in their own half with Tobi Vgorsi’s strike finding the bottom corner.

Brentford often worked the ball well into the final third, but lacked the quality that was possessed in their previous fixtures to finish their moves.

Bobb-Semple was the visitors biggest threat in the opening half with the winger nearly halving the deficit before the break, but his shot from a tight angle went wide.

McSorley had the best chance of the half when he was played through on goal but the Birmingham keeper did well to keep his shot out.

Birmingham flew out of the blocks in the second half and could have made it 3-0 but Conor Wolfheimer made a great save to deny Briar from close range.

Emeka Peters was beginning to see more of the ball in the second half with the left winger forcing a good save out of the hosts keeper on 57 minutes.

Brentford were playing some good football in the second half with most of the side’s chances coming from the wings.

On the hour mark Otis Honor played an excellent pass through to Bobb-Semple but the wide man couldn’t find the target with his shot.

On 84 minutes Brentford were rewarded for their hard work with a penalty after Halil was brought down inside the box.

The midfielder stepped up and slotted his spot kick home in confident fashion leaving the hosts with some momentum heading into the final minutes of the game.

The hosts defended their box well in the remaining minutes of the game as the side saw out their lead to earn all three points.

Brentford Under-18s: Wolfheimer, Francis (Trimboli, 80), Golding (Taylor, 45’), Klimas, Asemokhai, Powis, Bobb-Semple, Halil (Outtarra, 85’), McSorley, Honor (Trialist, 80’), Peters (Giscombe, 69)

Birmingham Under-18s: Terenolicz, Thompson, Bamba, Burrell, Quirk, Martin-Moore, Sanders, Wynne, Bateman, Betteka, Vgorsi

Subs not used: Maddox, Warmington, Brannigan, McCusker, Ahmed