Our youngsters suffered a 3-0 defeat to Lincoln City in the first round of the FA Youth Cup.
After a competitive first half in which we had the better of the chances, the Imps took the game away from us after the break.
After a minute's silence was held in memory of Nottingham Panthers player Adam Johnson, who tragically died at the weekend, the first big chance of the match went to the visitors, Joshua Murtagh making a good save to deny MJ Kamson-Kamara after the defender had twisted and turned in the area.
Lincoln continued their pressure but, after Frankie Devereux had made a crucial block to keep Gbolahan Okewoye’s shout out, our youngsters began to impose themselves on the game.
Charlie Gill led the charge, sending a shot over the bar before seeing another deflect agonisingly wide.
Sam Edgington’s well-struck effort was pushed over by Isaac Allen, who also saw a Cassius Cisse shot deflect wide of his goal before the half was out.
For all our pressure before the break, though, we found ourselves behind shortly after the restart as Bailey Adamson capitalised on Lewis Greenfield’s under-hit backpass, rounding Murtagh and crossing for Zane Okoro to finish.
James Sanderson offered our response on 55 minutes, sending a shot narrowly wide of the near post after an impressive run.
Gill saw a 20-yard effort deflected wide shortly after the hour, with a defender diverting Noah Simmons’ low shot off-target from the resultant corner.
But, after Kamson-Kamara had made a big block at the back post to block substitute Harrison Hazard’s effort, the visitors got their second as Okoro bagged his second with a snapshot from just outside the area.
Murtagh made a good save from Dakara Wifa as the Imps looked to use their momentum to kill the game off.
But they didn’t have to wait much longer for their third as, on 76 minutes, substitute Russell Berko darted on to a through ball to poke it beyond Murtagh in the area.
Gill glanced a header wide as was sought a route back into the game but there was to be no further goalmouth action in front of a crowd of 496.