Under-18s pay for first-half errors against Chelsea

Tarrelle Whittaker and Harvey White led the resurgence but it was too little, too late after a disastrous first-half display cost our Under-18s dearly against Chelsea on Saturday morning.

Conceding a penalty inside 20 seconds at a foggy Hotspur Way, we were on the back foot from the off and found ourselves 5-0 down in the first 40 minutes as the Blues threatened every time they went forward.

It could have been even worse after a number of other near misses from the visitors, but the players rallied together after the break and made the game into more of a contest, Whittaker scoring two good goals and the superb White – who made a clear difference following his introduction as a 53rd-minute substitute – adding a late penalty. It made for a slightly more palatable final scoreline at 5-3, but left Under-18s Coach Matt Taylor with plenty to ponder going into the international break.

Both sets of players observed a minute’s silence before kick-off during this period of Remembrance but once the game got underway, it was one-way traffic. Joe Haigh sped in behind inside 20 seconds and won a penalty from defender Aaron Skinner, which Lewis Bate blasted home after a short delay, while Armando Broja somehow missed the target from close range in a big chance to quickly double his side’s lead.

Our caused wasn’t helped when Under-16s striker Dane Scarlett limped off injured early, with Haigh scoring a header for 2-0 on the quarter-of-an-hour mark and Broja extending his side’s lead five minutes later after Dermi Lusala’s attempted clearance deflected in off the forward. Dynel Simeu headed back across goal for Xavier Simons to make it 4-0 on 24 minutes and only a superb flying save from Thimothee Lo-Tutala kept out Marcel Lewis’ subsequent free-kick. Broja ran through on the break to make it five with five minutes to go until the break.

Rafferty Pedder and Chay Cooper had gone close for us during that nightmare spell, with Cooper required to clear Sam McClelland’s header away from just in front of the goal in the opening exchanges of the second period. However, White added some composure from a holding midfield position and we began to play our way into the game, Whittaker converting Romaine Mundle’s right-wing cross to get us off the mark on the hour.

Whittaker, operating as the central striker following Scarlett’s early departure, then cracked home a superb second off the frame of the goal from distance after White won the ball in Chelsea’s half on 79 minutes. And with two minutes of normal time remaining, the latter made it 5-3 from the spot after Cooper was fouled. We were on top by that stage, Whittaker forcing a save from Jake Askew in added time, but ultimately the clock ran down and we paid for our first-half woes.

Key moment

White’s introduction eight minutes into the second half steadied the ship. The midfielder, who has played more for the Under-23s than the Under-18s this season, provided an added shield in the defensive midfield area and allowed us to play forward. He set up Whittaker for his superb second goal and, as our Academy’s set-piece specialist, deservedly scored from the spot late on.

Coach’s view

Under-18s Coach Matt Taylor reflected: “I was really surprised and disappointed with our first-half display. We didn’t compete anywhere near well enough, irrespective of any technical quality that our players have got. We had a very honest conversation at half-time and the boys came out and made a fist of it in the second half. It was just a really disappointing morning for everyone concerned with the Under-18s because we knew it was going to be a tough fixture, but to perform the way we did in the first half was totally unacceptable. Harvey was exceptional when he came on, Tarrelle got his two goals so, yes, there were positives in the second half but the first-half performance was so far off the levels we expect and we were too far down with the 5-0 scoreline at half-time to make a proper game of it. We showed some character and much more commitment in the second half but we’ve now got to see if we can use this experience as one the boys can learn from, we’ll go through what went wrong and try to make sure that this doesn’t happen again.”