A trio of first-half goals earned Islington & Camden Under-13s three points as they began their season with a comfortable 3-0 victory over Barnet in the Compton Cup.

Midfielder Luc Achermann-Stanfield put his side in control by scoring the opening goal after eight minutes and they maintained the upper hand with a superb display of possession football.

Solomon Hamilton was the driving force for Islington & Camden with a series of box-to-box runs, while Aaron Keto hit the post and went close to increasing their lead on other occasions.

Adam Damaan did make it 2-0 late in the first half, converting a cutback from Caleb Adomako-Mensah cutback – and Keto then teed up Hamilton for the third goal just a minute later.

Barnet never threatened any kind of comeback in the second period, with goalkeeper Arlo Doherty and central defenders Mason McBride and Trey Barrington putting in solid performances.

Islington & Camden manager Jamie Houghton said: “We knew we had a good group of players, but we’d only seen them in training so we couldn’t be sure how they would perform as a team on matchday.

“But they surpassed all our expectations. Hopefully this performance is something we can build on and take into our next game, which is likely to be a stiffer test, against Hillingdon.”

The Hillingdon game, which is an English Schools’ Trophy second round tie, takes place on Saturday at St Aloysius’ College (kick-off 10am). I&C Under-15s travel to St Albans in the same tournament.

Islington & Camden: Achermann-Stanfield, Webster (Acland Burghley); Damaan (Hampstead); Bebbington, Christou, Reid (Highbury Grove); Doherty, McBride, Wisker (Holloway); Preus (Northbridge House); Barrington, Hamilton, Keto (St Aloysius); Adomako-Mensah (UCL); Adom (William Ellis).

Two deflections denied Islington & Camden Under-14s victory as they fought out an entertaining 3-3 draw at Barnet in the Bower Cup.

I&C drew first blood after 20 minutes, when the home side half-cleared a corner to right-back Serak Seyoum, who unleashed a screamer into the roof of the net.

Barnet levelled with a long-range effort of their own and took the lead just before half-time with a shot that spun off an I&C defender and sailed into the net.

Mohammed Khadrun tied the game up again 15 minutes into the second half, finishing off a corner routine with a curling left-foot drive that went in off the post.

Substitute goalkeeper Adam Rogers produced a stunning save to maintain parity and it looked as if the visitors would claim all three points when Rafiq Khaleel ran onto Shaun Barwoah’s through ball and slotted into the bottom corner.

Barnet had other ideas, though, and a second deflected goal a few minutes from time ensured that the spoils were shared.

I&C manager Jim de Garis said: “Three points would have been nice, but the boys did really well. Adam gave a very assured performance in goal and so did our centre-halves, Reece Farrell and Jayden Rincon, who were very solid.”

Islington & Camden: Seyoum, Farrell, Rincon, Jones (St Aloysius); Tunde, Barwoah, Tshola (Central Foundation); Bain, Khadrun (Hampstead); Stephenson (IAMS); Khaleel, Abde (Acland Burghley); Rogers (Highbury Grove).