A youthful Aldershot Town side played out an exciting 3-3 draw with Southampton under-21s in the National League Cup group stage before losing the resulting penalty shoot-out 4-2.

Toby Nelson’s assured strike for the Shots came either side of Hady Ghandour’s double, while Moses Sesay, Baylee Dipepa and William Merry scored for the visitors in front of a crowd of 371 at the EBB Stadium.

The Saints took an early lead through Sesay, who reacted quickest to a half-clearance from Aston Daley’s free kick.

Ghandour had the Shots’ first big chance of the evening after James Clarridge’s ball over the top found the forward in behind the visitors’ backline. Ghandour took a touch before firing a shot straight at Saints keeper Dylan Moody, who parried behind for a corner.

The resulting corner hit multiple bodies in the box, before Ghandour fired the ball into the roof of the net to level things up in the eighth minute.

The Saints regained the lead on 22 minutes. Sesay rounded Shots keeper Pat Nash and saw his effort superbly cleared off the line by Joe Lewis-Evans, but the ball broke to Dipepa who volleyed home from close range.

The Shots equalised for a second time in the 40th minute when Nelson confidently fired in the rebound after Ghandour was denied.

The second half started with the Shots in control, and the hosts won a number of corners as they put the visitors under pressure.

The young Saints almost found themselves behind when a headed clearance found Nelson on the edge of the box, with the 19-year-old unleashing a ferocious half-volley that looked destined for Moody’s top right-hand corner if not for a deflection.

The Saints then had a period of control and regained the lead on the hour mark through Merry. Dipepa drove down the left before firing an ambitious shot from a tight angle that forced a diving punch from Nash that fell into the path of Merry, who poked a bouncing effort into an empty net to put the visitors 3-2 ahead.

The hosts almost equalised when substitute Haydon Vaughan raced down the left before planting a cross directly onto the forehead of Ghandour. The forward leapt well and connected perfectly, but just didn’t have the direction to send his header within the left-hand post.

The Shots continued to search for a leveller and came close when a long-range left-foot strike from James Martin was saved by the fingertips of Moody.

Aldershot did make it 3-3 when Maddox McMillan and Matt Penney linked up well before McMillan poked the ball through to Ghandour in the box, who fired his effort goalwards on the swivel with his back to goal and found the bottom right-hand corner of the net.

With neither side able to find a winning goal late on honours finished even, but as per competition rules a penalty shoot-out was contested for an extra point.

Ghandour scored Aldershot’s first penalty, but Merry scored Southampton’s first penalty to make it 1-1. Mullins missed the Shots’ second penalty before Daley scored to put the visitors 2-1 up in the shoot-out. Nelson scored Aldershot’s third penalty, but Tommy Dobson-Ventura then scored to put the visitors 3-2 ahead. Penney missed the Shots’ fourth penalty before Walter Nutter scored the decisive spot kick for the Saints.