It was yet another high-scoring game for the Under 18s at the weekend but mistakes at the back proved costly as they slipped to their first home defeat.

The visitors from the south coast looked anything but potential victors in the opening stages of the game as the Chelsea side took the initiative, fashioning a series of chances from crosses, especially from the left. However, from five openings in the first 15 minutes, the young Blues failed to take any.

Then on 25 minutes, a Southampton cross was cleared as far as their holding midfielder who hit a shot from 30 yards that swerved in via the inside of the post. Chelsea were one goal down against the run of play.

There was a good response and one minute later, Josh McEachran, one of two schoolboys in the Chelsea midfield, crossed from the left-hand side to Rohan Ince, the other schoolboy who was making his debut.

The ball came loose to Frank Nouble (pictured) who hit a good shot which the keeper parried, only for Jacopo Sala to tap in at the far-post.

One minute later, a mistake by Conor Clifford let the ball under his foot and after confusion with Billy-Joe King about the loose ball, a Saints forward nipped in and from a two-v-one with Jack Saville, squared it for a tap-in and three goals in three minutes.

The score remained 2-1 to the visitors until the break and they added their third on 50 minutes. Ince was caught in possession in a central position and following a pass between King and Ben Gordon, the ball was slotted it home.

Then from Chelsea possession again, Saville ran into traffic on coming out with the ball from centre-back and Southampton hit on the break for 4-1 after 70 minutes.

On 81 minutes, Nouble scored a really good Chelsea goal, collecting the ball on the left-hand side and hitting a dipping, curling shot over the keeper into the top corner.

Then deep into stoppage time, Gordon got down the left and pulled the ball inside to McEachran who finished really well to complete the scoring.

'The 4-3 scoreline flattered us,' reports youth team manager Paul Clement.

'It suggests it was a really close game when it wasn't because with nine minutes to go we are 4-1 down. We rallied a bit at the end but it was too late.

'Our first 15 minutes when we played some really good football and looked threatening and our last 10 minutes we played well but the middle part of game, individual mistakes cost us dearly.

'When Southampton made it 2-1 a minute after we had equalised, it knocked our confidence and for the next 15 minutes we played really poorly.

'Again we leaked goals unnecessarily. We are still scoring freely but we can't keep goals out at the moment and that's eight games without a clean sheet. It is something we are working on in training but the players are not responding to it and we are making costly errors. We will continue to do the work.'

Chelsea Jan Sebek; Nikki Ahamed, Jack Saville, Billy-Joe King (Vincenzo Camelleri 80), Ben Gordon; Conor Clifford (c), Rohan Ince, Josh McEachran; Jacopo Sala, Frank Nouble, Jordan Tabor.