Spurs 2-2 Chelsea (PL2)

Shayon Harrison and Connor Ogilvie both headed home as our development squad twice came back from a goal down to draw 2-2 with Chelsea in the Premier League 2 on Friday (January 6).

Striker Harrison capped a fine team performance in the first period when he glanced home Nathan Oduwa's cross to cancel out Mason Mount's early free-kick, which had seen the Blues edge themselves in front.

Dominic Solanke restored the visitors' lead 10 minutes into the second period on a chilly afternoon at Hotspur Way but three minutes later, left-back Connor Ogilvie popped up with a second equaliser from a corner.

Having controllled the play for much of the game, the last 20 minutes saw both sides go close from set pieces while Pau Lopez made an important low save, but the points were ultimately shared.

Key action

Goal: Spurs 0-1 Chelsea - Mason Mount - 5mins
Harrison fired wide less than 60 seconds into the game following Shilow Tracey's cut-back but we fell behind against the run of play from a set piece with five minutes gone. Anton Walkes was penalised for handball as he tried to defend a long ball over the top and Mount curled the resulting 20-yard free-kick inside the near post.

Goal: Spurs 1-1 Chelsea - Shayon Harrison - 39mins
Our players imposed themselves on the game despite the early setback and although Solanke angled a header wide and Ike Ugbo was denied by the off-side flag it was us who looked more dangerous. Joe Pritchard's shot was deflected wide, while the midfielder's volley from Oduwa's cross spun just over the top before another good Oduwa delivery led to our equaliser on 39 minutes. After patiently working away on the left flank, the wide man sent the ball up into the box for Harrison to glance a header across goalkeeper Brad Collins and inside the far post. Oduwa then had a big penalty shout waved away as he went down under the challenge of Dujon Sterling, meaning we went in level at the interval.

Goal: Spurs 1-2 Chelsea - Dominic Solanke - 55mins
We again looked the brighter of the sides after half-time but on 55 minutes we conceded once more as Chelsea worked the ball from right to left through Mukhtar Ali and Solanke fired in from the left angle.

Goal: Spurs 2-2 Chelsea - Connor Ogilvie - 58mins
Our lads kept their heads up and found a response three minutes after Chelsea's second goal - and it came from an unlikely source! Oduwa won a corner, Pritchard took the kick and defender Ogilvie darted towards the near post to steer a header across goal and into the far corner.

 
Above: Connor Ogilvie celebrates his goal with Shayon Harrison and Joe Pritchard.  

Chances: both sides close to a winner - 70-73mins
We might have benefitted from another aerial assault on 70 minutes when substitute Charlie Owens floated in a dangerous free-kick, but Christian Maghoma couldn't crane his head back to get a clean header on it in the area and the Blues cleared their lines. Three minutes later at the other end it needed a good low left-handed save from Pau Lopez to keep out Ugbo's stooping header. Later on, Oduwa's free-kick was tipped over the bar by Collins while the Blues had a flurry of set pieces in the closing moments but we stood firm.

Coach Ugo Ehiogu said

“In the first half I thought we were the better footballing team, we had the better chances but we weren’t as clinical from set-plays. We had some great deliveries from Joe Pritchard and normally we’re better at covering the frame of the goal, we have someone there middle and far, but we missed that today. In the second half we competed better but there were moments where we got tired, we didn’t handle their aerial threat from set-plays well enough and it’s probably a fair reflection on the scoreline in the end. We didn’t really do enough clinically to win it and didn’t really deserve to lose it based on our first-half play.

“There was a bit of rustiness from some of the players having not played a competitive game for a while and it showed a little bit, but I’m pleased with Shayon – he worked very hard, took his goal ever-so well, we’ve been talking to him about his headed goals and he’s engineered some power from that cross. There were some good individual performances in the back four and we’ve become a much stronger mental unit – getting the first goal back reflected our dominance of the ball in the first half. The players can take a lot of credit because they’ve listened, taken a lot of stuff on board and they’re hungry to push on. As long as we’ve got players pushing for that and striving for that, it’s pleasing that they’re making progress.”

Match data

Spurs: Pau Lopez, Walker-Peters, Ogilvie (Muscatt 78), Amos (c), Maghoma, Walkes, Pritchard (Owens 63), Stylianides, Harrison, Tracey, Oduwa (Goddard 84). Substitute (not used): Glover (GK).

Chelsea: Collins, Sterling, Tomori, T Chalobah, Dabo (c), Sammut (Maddox 65), Wakefield (St Clair 77), Ali, Ugbo, Solanke (Christie-Davies 73), Mount. Substitutes (not used): Colley, Thompson (GK).

Goals: Spurs - Harrison 39, Ogilvie 58; Chelsea - Mount 5, Solanke 55.

Referee: Wayne Barratt.

Attendance: 130.

Next up

We're back in Premier League 2 action next Friday (January 13) with an evening kick-off at Manchester City. We suffered a narrow 2-1 defeat in the reverse fixture at White Hart Lane earlier in the season. Kick-off will be at 7pm at City's Academy Stadium.