Our men's under-18s made it three consecutive victories in Premier League South with a superb 5-2 win over Reading on Saturday.
Inigo Calderon's team are unbeaten in the league in 2024 and had won their last two against Arsenal and Palace heading into the weekend.
Any doubt as to whether they would be able to continue that run was settled in a frenetic opening 17 minutes in which four goals were scored.
Harry Mills got the first of his three assists of the game, crossing in from the left to Harry Howell who flicked it up and volleyed in from close range in fine fashion.
The lead lasted for three minutes as Joseph Barough tucked the equaliser away smartly from the edge of the box, finding the bottom right corner.
We retook the lead after 14 minutes when Harry Lee went on a marauding run, starting at right-back, before finding Mills on the left who saw another cross put away, this time by Shane Nti.
The final goal of the hectic start put daylight between ourselves and the Royals as Mills’s cross was met by Remiero Moulton, with his initial flick being kept out by keeper Harrison Rhone, but the ball deflected in off Moulton’s shin. The goalkeeper’s touch may well deny Mills a third assist, but we’re happy for him to be credited.
Albion were finding a lot of joy from crosses and they would help them find a fourth, with Moulton finding Nehemiah Oriola six minutes after the restart with a ball from the right, who tapped in.
Reading responded to make it 4-2, countering from an Albion corner and although Lorenz Ferdinand did well to initially deny Emmanuel Osho, the ball fell kindly for Jayden Atkinson to follow up.
Oriola would find a fifth and final Albion goal of the game as his thumped effort from a tight angle beat keeper Rhone at his near post.
Under-18s head coach Calderon said, “I am happy, not just with the win, but with what I have seen in the last few weeks, the day-by-day has been really good.
"What we do in the training sessions is really important, because they set us up for how we will play in the game. I feel like the players doing well in those and Saturday was a consequence of that, because I don’t think we were at our best but we still scored five goals and could have had more. That’s a good reflection of how the team are doing now. It’s a good platform.
"We now have a difficult period of games, but we are in a better position to go and get points in all of those games."