Chelsea 2-0 Spurs (U18s) - report from Cobham

A below-par first-half display cost us dearly as we lost the first ever Under-18 Premier League Cup Final 2-0 to Chelsea on Sunday afternoon.

The Blues, who hosted the showpiece game at their Cobham training ground, were far superior in the first half-an-hour, showing exactly why they continue to maintain a stranglehold over youth football at home and abroad.

After our goalkeeper Jonathan De Bie saved Conor Gallagher's early penalty, Charlie Brown fired Chelsea into an 18th-minute lead as they forced us into making mistakes and were powerful and organised in their own endeavours.

After a spell where we played our way back into the game, Brown snatched a crucial second goal on the stroke of half-time to put his side firmly in control.

To our players' credit, we gave it a real go after the interval and had a couple of openings late on, but 16-year-old striker Troy Parrot - leading the line in the absence of Under-18s top scorer Reo Griffiths - was denied by goalkeeper Karlo Ziger and then by a covering Marcel Lavinier tackle.

TJ Eyoma made some excellent interventions at the other end to prevent Chelsea from extending their lead, but ultimately it was our London rivals who got their hands on the silverware.

KEY ACTION

PENALTY SAVE: DE BIE REDEEMS HIMSELF AFTER EARLY FOUL - 14mins
After an early penalty shout for us when Parrot went down was waved away, Chelsea had a chance to take the lead with a penalty of their own when Brooklyn Lyons-Foster sold De Bie short on a back-pass and the keeper was adjudged to have fouled Tariq Uwakwe as he dived at his feet to try to recover the ball. Up stepped Gallagher to take the penalty, but De Bie redeemed himself with a superb save down to his right.

GOAL: CHELSEA 1-0 SPURS - CHARLIE BROWN - 18mins
Chelsea's dominant, efficient display soon began to tell as they sent in a number of dangerous crosses from the wide areas. The opener arrived when Uwakwe delivered from the right, Marc Guehi got the first touch eight yards out and Brown hammered into the roof of the net. Moments later, Brown went clean through on the counter but was denied by a superb tackle from behind from Lyons-Foster, the ball ricocheting off the post, back off of Brown and forcing De Bie into another good save. Sadly, Lyons-Foster was forced off moments later through injury.

Above: Dilan Markanday on the ball.

GOAL: CHELSEA 2-0 SPURS - CHARLIE BROWN - 45+1mins
We had a spell just after the half-hour mark where we managed to play our usual game and make inroads into Chelsea territory, but suffered a real sucker-punch in first-half stoppage time. Having at least managed to stay in the game, we were undone by a disguised pass through the back four from Billy Gilmour and Brown was in behind to smash past De Bie.

SAVE: ZIGER FINALLY FORCED INTO ACTION - 77mins
We were much more competitive in the second period and finally found an opening on 77 minutes when Parrot threw himself at Phoenix Patterson's corner at the back post, but Ziger saved well down to his left. Parrot was working hard in the forward areas but the ball wouldn't quite fall for him, Lavinier notably coming across to rob him in the box on one occasion, while Eyoma got in the way of Martell Taylor-Crossdale's shot following a mistake by De Bie and then got a crucial touch on Tariq Lamptey's low centre to take it away from the prowling Chelsea strikers as we prevented the hosts from adding to their lead.

COACH SCOTT PARKER SAID

“In the first half we didn’t turn up and deserved exactly what we got. We were poor and in fact the scoreline could have been a little bit more. Coming up against a very good side, if there’s one thing you’ve got to guarantee it’s a work ethic, a desire, hunger and it kills me to say it but we didn’t really show that today. Whether that was because of nerves or stage fright, I don’t know, but it certainly wasn’t us and we gave ourselves an uphill task. The second half was better but it couldn’t have got much worse after the first half so there was an improvement but, in saying that, they missed some glorious chances and in the end we didn’t deserve anything from the game.”

MATCH DATA

Chelsea U18s: Ziger, Lamptey, Lavinier, Guehi, Mola, Gallagher (c), Uwakwe, Gilmour, Brown (Taylor-Crossdale 70), McEachran, Castillo (Anjorin 82). Substitute (not used): Tie, Wakely, Redan.

Spurs U18s: De Bie (c), Hinds, Reynolds, Bowden (P Maghoma 58), Eyoma, Lyons-Foster (Dinzeyi 30), Markanday, Skipp (Richards 76), Parrot, Patterson, Bennett. Substitutes (not used): Oluwayemi, A Shashoua.

Goals: Chelsea - Brown 18, 45+1.

Yellow card: Spurs - Hinds 38.

Referee: Daniel Austin.

UP NEXT

It may be an international break but there's still league action to look forward to for our Under-18s next week. On Saturday we travel to face Aston Villa at Bodymoor Heath (12pm) before making the short trip to face London rivals West Ham United the following Wednesday (28 March, 12pm).