Swansea City Brighton Under-18s Liam Cullen Causso Darame

A last-minute goal from winger Liam Cullen helped Swansea City Under-18s maintain their unbeaten merit league run with a 3-3 draw at Brighton on Saturday.

The visitors found themselves two goals down at the break but the young Swans rallied after the break to get back on level terms through Cullen - who was celebrating his 17th birthday - and winger Causso Darame.

Brighton retook the lead on the 75th minute before the Swans levelled again through Cullen's header seconds before full-time to secure the point, which keeps alive their hopes of finishing top of the merit group 3 table.

Coach Eric Ramsay hailed the young Swans' fightback but admitted the first-half performance did not match expectations.

"We are disappointed with our performance during the first 45 minutes," he said. "We were below the standard we have shown in recent weeks.

"But myself and Chris (Llewellyn) are pleased the team showed character, grit and resilience to fight back into the game after going behind so early.

"The performance was disappointing as it did not meet our usual standards but there are huge positives to take with the character and spirit we demonstrated to fight back to draw.

"Today was a good measure of how far we have come since the start of the season. We lost 6-0 last time we played at Brighton - compared to that day we were a million times better.

"The result means we are still on target to remain unbeaten in our merit group and could still top the table with a win at home to Newcastle next week."

SWANS U18s: Lewis Thomas (capt), Mael Davies (Ben Morgan, 80), Dan Jefferies, Ben Cabango, Matt Blake, Jack Evans, Tom Dyson, Marco Dulca (Liam Edwards, 55) Liam Cullen, Jordan Garrick (Jordan Jones, 80), Causso Darame.

SUBS NOT USED: Ross Treacy.