Cambridge United ring the changes in Papa John’s Trophy defeat to Arsenal’s young guns

Cambridge United started this season's Papa John's Trophy group stage with a 2-0 home defeat at the hands of Arsenal Under-21s last night.

Nineteen-year-old winger Nathan Butler-Oyedeji proved to be the match winner for the young Gunners with a goal in either half to get the better of a U's side that showed 10 changes from Saturday's pulsating 4-3 victory over Burton Albion.

Overall it was a fairly even contest in terms of chances created and possession, yet after both teams had seen opportunities go begging during the opening exchanges the visitors from north London broke the deadlock in the 26th minute when Cambridge goalkeeper Will Mannion mishandled a high ball and Butler-Oyedeji pounced to fire in from just inside the box.

Fejiri Okenabirhie – making his first start for Cambridge – and Saikou Janneh both went close to equalising as the hosts started to find their feet in the contest before the half-time whistle.

However, their task became even tougher with 56 minutes on the clock as Butler-Oyedeji once again displayed his predatory instincts with a neat finish from 10 yards out to double Arsenal's advantage.

He went close to completing his hat-trick 10 minutes later with a rasping effort from distance that cannoned against the crossbar, but all in all his brace proved to be enough to get Arsenal off to a winning start and leave Cambridge looking to bounce back in their two remaining group fixtures against Ipswich Town and Northampton Town.

While disappointed with the result, assistant head coach Gary Waddock was pleased to have given minutes to a number of players that had been lacking match action in recent weeks.

He said: "Obviously we wanted to give a better account of ourselves. We wanted to win the fixture, the players are disappointed, but you’ve got to give credit to Arsenal as well, who had some good players on show.

“You want to progress, but on the other hand we’ve got to get this squad fit, ready and available for the campaign. It’s a fine line and you’ve got to balance both.

“We wanted to give those lads some game time and we did that. We rested some players for tonight as well, because it’s a heavy schedule that we’ve just been in.

“It’s difficult (to break through) when we’re doing so well in the league campaign, but that’s the main objective. We’ve started ok, we need to keep that going, but they’ll be ready to go again when called upon.”

Cambridge will look to rack up a fourth straight EFL League One home victory on Saturday when they entertain Lincoln City.

Cambridge United: Mannion, Okedina, Taylor, Ibsen Rossi, Haunstrup, O’Neil, Simper (May, 60), Janneh (Knibbs, 60), Lankester, Brophy (Worman, 45), Okenabirhie (Ironside, 60)

Arsenal U21s: Hein, Sweet, Foran, Awe (Monlouis, 87), Sousa, Akinola, Henry-Francis (Bandeira, 61), Olayinka, Taylor-Hart (Cirjan, 88), Ideho, Butler-Oyedeji (Sagoe Jr, 77)