Saints Under-18s were beaten at league leaders Arsenal but more than held their own against the Gunners on Saturday morning.

The hosts were fortunate to get an early goal in the game which arrived inside the opening minute of the match, as Luke Freeman capitalised on a loose ball and fired home past Jack Dovey to give Arsenal the lead.

Saints responded well and dominated large periods of the game. They were rewarded when just past the half hour mark Garyn Preen saw his shot deflected into the back of the net to put the visitors back on level terms.

Ten minutes before the break Arsenal retook the lead when a deflected free-kick from Conor Freeman harshly put Saints on the backfoot again.

Before the break, Steve Bould's side extended their advantage when Freeman hit his second of the game from a well worked move from the middle of the park to make it 3-1.

Jason Dodd felt that the youngsters didn't deserve to lose the game and bossed the opposition for long spells in the match.

"I cannot fault their effort, I thought they were terrific today," he said. "Steve Bould (Arsenal's Under 18s coach) said that we played some really good football and in the end it's a disappointing result for us.

"We were the better side but there wasn't much more that we could have done in the game or about the goals that we conceded."

Saints Under-18s: Dovey, Argent, Racine, Tafazolli, Reeves, Robinson (Keegan 70), Oxlade-Chamberlain, McNish, Holder-Spooner, Preen (Isgrove 70), Hoskins.