Our development squad take on Liverpool at Kingsmeadow on Saturday afternoon with the match against the young Reds set to kick-off at 1pm, an hour later than originally scheduled due to cold weather overnight.

Our form

Recent games have shown an ability to find late goals which have helped the team continue their pursuit of the PL2 title.

Manchester United were the opponents in our last PL2 outing this past Monday and we came out on top, winning 3-1 as Leo Castledine and Malik Mothersille came on to score two late goals that gave us victory.

The young Red Devils had spells where they were on top, but a resilient defensive performance led by PL2 Player of the Month for February nominee Alfie Gilchrist, as well as clinical attacking play that meant chances were created until the very end, were important to our success.

Before that, we required a goal five minutes from time from Castledine to beat Arsenal by a goal to nil. The young midfielder again showed his knack for being in the right place at the right time as he dispatched confidently.

With the last time we were crowned champions of the league coming in the 2019/20 season under Andy Myers, the current season presents a great opportunity for us to be the winners again.

There are six games to go, and we sit two points behind the leaders Manchester City who have a game-in-hand over us.

Reverse fixture

The reverse game away from home against today’s opponents ended 0-0 and this was only the second time this season that we had failed to put the ball in the back of the net.

Development squad head coach Mark Robinson gave his thoughts on this, further highlighting how being in a title race will have a positive impact on his players’ development.

Robinson said, ‘Liverpool were very well structured defensively with big strong centre-backs and apart from the first 15 minutes we did not move the ball quick enough in transition and in general open play either.’

In reference to that match, he added: ‘It was a very tight game and I felt we played within ourselves a little bit and our movement did not have as much freedom as it usually does. Nonetheless I have all the confidence that we will create enough chances to score in this game.’

Development process

Robinson on the title race said, ‘With six games to go the players are very aware what they need to try to achieve to win the league for Chelsea. They need to enjoy that challenge because their relentless positive attitude to improve in all aspects on and off the pitch has put them in such an excellent position.’

Our opponents have also won their last two games since we last met, so they will be looking to close the gap on us as they sit directly below us in third place.