FA Premier Reserve League, South 
           Griffin Park, Brentford.
        Monday 17th September 2007, 7pm

       CHELSEA       V       SPURS    
      (All Blue)          (All Yellow)                     
        4-4-2                4-5-1

        1(1)                 1(1)

        Stuart Seale 1 Ben Alnwick
       Anthony Grant 2 Phil Ifil (C)
         Carl Magnay 3 Cian Hughton
    Sam Hutchinson(C)4 Kieran McKenna
        Patrick
         van Aanholt 5 Leigh Mills
       Liam Bridcutt 6 Troy
                       Archibald-Henville
      Miroslav Stoch 7 Andy Barcham
       Michael Woods 8 Kevin-Prince
                       Boateng
      Shaun Cummings 9 Tomas Pekhart
         Lee Sawyer 10 Simon Dawkins
     Scott Sinclair 11 Jacques Maghoma

     Fabio Ferreira 12 Tommy Forecast
                    13 Chris Riley
                       (3)80Mins.
     Morten Nielsen 14 Jake Livermore
      (10)77Mins.
      Sergio Tejera
          Rodriguez 15 Andros Townsend
      Seth
      Ofori-Twamasi 16 Jamie Davis
      (4)46Mins.
       Jacob Mellis 17  
       (8)66Mins. 

    Coach:-
          B.Rodgers     C.Allen 
    Scorers:-
          Sinclair 16   Barcham 8

    Booked:-            Maghoma 17(Late)

    Attendance:- 746

Referee:- D.Sheldrake

It was a little chilly this evening, with the floodlights on at the beginning to remind us that it was moving into real football time. The new venue for Chelsea looks a lot better than the last one as well as being closer for those living north of London

Spurs lined up with Archibald-Henville at the back with Mills. Alongside them Ifil played on the right and Hughton on the left. For some unknown reason the team-sheet and the announcer called him Chris – harking back to the good old days I suppose. McKenna and Boateng were in central midfield with Barcham on the right and Maghoma on the left with Dawkins dropping into the hole behind Pekhart up front.

Spurs kicked off attacking the home end and Boateng was soon in his stride committing the first foul of the game. With McKenna and Boateng taking control of the middle the visitors pushed the home side back and Maghoma had the first shot which went wide.

Boateng released Ifil to go down the flank and put over a good cross, with was met by Barcham at the far post to head home. The lead only lasted four minutes as Stoch put Cummings free in the right corner to cross for the unmarked Sinclair to head in at the far post.

With the ball being played through the midfield the extra players meant that Spurs always looked the better side and created numerous chances with Seale saving from Barcham and Boateng and Dawkins having efforts blocked. Barcham had a shot cleared off the line from an Ifil free kick. Cumming intercepted a poor Mills back pass only to hit the post in a rare Chelsea attack before Seale was saving from Dawkins and Pekhart had a shot blocked. Stoch, who was their best player fired over when in space before Boateng hit one wide and Mills forced a save following an uncleared corner. Boateng was putting in a good all-round performance setting up attacks and helping in defence. He was still trying the little tricks which tended to come off tonight unlike last time out.

The second half started much as the first with Spurs dominating the game with Maghoma putting his effort wide after only two minutes and this was followed by McKenna and Boateng hitting over before Seale had to tip over a header from Pekhart.

Alnwick wasn’t called into action until the 77th minute when he had to make a save from Sinclair. Rodgers made the rest of his changes bringing on Nielsen in attack and changing to 4-4-2 which gave them more threat up front. Spurs still pressed and Barcham had another effort saved and Pekhart was blocked twice by Bridcutt in another attempt. With four minutes left Boateng nearly won it when his header hit the crossbar from Ifil’s free kick. Chelsea almost snatched it at the death when Stoch was left free at the far post, but he fired wide.

This was definitely two points lost as Spurs were so much on top with plenty of chances, that meant a draw flattered Chelsea. Some poor finishing and last ditch defending kept them in it. Pekhart was so unlucky with his header that was destined for the top left corner until Seale got his fingers to it. Boateng and McKenna controlled the midfield with Maghoma, Barcham and Dawkins in support had too much skill for the home side which
had a few young players in its ranks.

On this form Boateng should be knocking on the first team door very soon. He will find that he cannot put a foot on the ball as he did in this game and get away with it so often, and so long as he does not rise to the bait and retaliate, which he has a tendency to do, then he could challenge Huddlestone or Jenas for a place. Our next Reserve game is at home (at Leyton Orient's ground) to Arsenal on the 2nd October.

Ray

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