Premier U-18 League South group 2015-16
                       Cobham, Surrey
                Saturday 8th January 2016, 11am.

                  CHELSEA     v     SPURS
                (All Blue)       (White/Blue)
                  4-2-3-1          4-2-3-1

                    4(3)             2(0)

               Nathan Baxter  1 Thomas McDermott
              Richard Nartey  2 Joseph Muscatt
                  Ali Suljic  3 Jaden Brown
             Trevoh Chalobah  4 Charlie Owens
                Cole DaSilva  5 Japhet Tangana
             Ruben Sammut(C)  6 Christian Maghoma(C)
           Charlie Wakefield  7 Shilow Tracey
                  Kyle Scott  8 Christopher Paul
                    Ike Ugbo  9 Kazaiah Sterling
                 Mason Mount 10 Charlie Hayford
       Isaac Christie-Davies 11 Keanan Bennetts

                  Josh Grant 12 Marcus Edwards
                   (2)69Mins    (7)55Mins
              Jared Thompson 13 Alfie Whiteman
            Harvey St. Clair 14 Zenon Stylianides
                   (8)62Mins    (6)55Mins
                 Miro Muheim 15 Ryan Loft
                   (7)60Mins    (9)55Mins
                Jacob Maddox 16 Samuel Shashoua

Scorers:-
            Ugbo (pen)9, 20     Loft 82
            Christie-Davies 40  Suljic o.g. 89
            Mount 52

Booked:-  
                                McDermott 9(Foul)
                                Muscatt 14(KBA)

Coaches:-
            J. Edwards          K. McKenna 

It was a cold damp morning for Spurs' trip to Chelsea for their first League game in a month since drawing at Reading. Spurs had travelled to Florida before Christmas and lost in the week to Middlesbrough in the Youth Cup. Spurs lost to Chelsea (the league leaders) 3-4 at Hotspur Way earlier in the season and lost last season at Cobham 2-1 when both sides were made up of U-16 players due to the Youth Cup semi-final match between the teams. Nineteen of the players involved then were involved in this game.

Spurs lined up with McDermott in goal behind Maghoma and Tangana with Muscatt at right back and Brown on the left. Owens and Paul played in front of them with Hayford playing in front of them flanked by Tracey on the right and Bennetts on the left in support of Sterling up front.

Spurs kicked off attacking the South end and had a couple of early chances when Paul played in Sterling but his effort was blocked. Baxter was out quickly to save at Sterling's feet when he was played in by Bennetts.

Chelsea then began to get a grip of the game and turned over the ball to allow Ugbo to get into the area where McDermott fouled him to concede a penalty and go into the ref's book. Ugbo took the kick and hit it down the middle as McDermott went to his left. Not long after that Muscatt was pulled up for a foul and kicked the ball away to earn a booking. The "Blues" went further ahead when Owens lost the ball and Ugbo was played in to bag his second of the game.

Tangana headed wide from a corner before Ugbo played in Christie-Davies for a chance which he fired over. Mount and DaSilva worked the ball for Ugbo but McDermott saved. Baxter saved at the feet of Tracey before the home side got a third when Scott played in Christie-Davies for a neat finish just before the break.

There were no changes for the start of the second half which saw Chelsea go 4-0 ahead when Christie-Davies dinked the ball into the path of the advancing Mount who scored. This led to a triple change by Spurs with Loft replacing Sterling up front and Edwards coming on for Tracey and Stylianides replacing Maghoma going into midfield as Paul dropped to right back. This allowed Muscatt to move to left back and Brown to join Tangana in the centre.

The changes seemed to put a spark into the side as Edwards played in Loft for a strike that was saved. Chelsea responded by making a couple of changes themselves before Sammut fired wide. Tangana had a header from a corner cleared off the line with Loft firing over when it was not cleared. Another corner saw Tangana head wide as Spurs pushed for a consolation. Christie-Davies drew a save from McDermott before Spurs scored. A neat dinked pass by Edwards saw Loft score with a chest high volley. Spurs were now looking dangerous and when Edwards got to the line and whipped the ball into the six yard box Suljic turned it past his own keeper. In added time Loft set up Hayford to fire wide.

Spurs were not given the time or space to play and added to the large number of passes going astray they were lucky not to concede more goals. They only began to look like their normal selves late in the game after the changes had been made.

The next league game for the U-18s is not until the 30th January when they travel to Leicester. Before that they are taking a squad to Mexico to play in the Copa Chivas.

Ray

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