Our regular Premier League 2 season came to a close at Kingsmeadow on Friday evening, when first-half goals from Leo Castledine and Dujuan Richards made sure we finished it on a high with a 2-0 win over Southampton.

Of course, there is still the matter of the title play-offs to come, which begin in the last 16 when we are back in Kingston to host Brighton this coming Friday.

However, for now, there is time for Chelsea Under-21s head coach Mark Robinson to reflect on a winning end to the league campaign and a much-improved performance by his side.

It was one which he felt was important, allowing us to banish the disappointment of our heavy Premier League Cup semi-final defeat to Fulham in our previous match, in time to go into the knockout stages of the Premier League 2 off the back of a victory.

'Knowing that we had already secured a play-off place going into the last league game, our focus was more on delivering an improved performance after our defeat to Fulham, which had been our worst display of the season,' he said.

'We wanted to put in a Chelsea Under-21s performance, and I’m pleased to say we did that.

'Southampton needed to win the game to finish in the play-off positions, so they had a strong side out and a lot of motivation, which made it even more pleasing to see us do the things we hadn’t done in the previous game against Fulham.

'We played with real intensity, we were a lot more aggressive without the ball, a lot more purposeful with the ball, and we thoroughly deserved to win the game 2-0. In fact, the result probably should have been more emphatic.'

Robinson continued to expand on what he means by a 'Chelsea Under-21s performance', highlighting some key areas from the performance against Southampton which have all the hallmarks of the Blues' Academy.

Central to that is the dominant possession-based brand of football he and his fellow coaches strive to develop across the age groups, but especially at Under-21s level, the last step on the Academy ladder for young players before graduating to the senior game.

'It was a performance where we looked to implement our style,' Robinson went on to explain.

'We had good structure when we didn’t have the ball, and when we got them into the areas where we wanted them, we were very aggressive in our press.

'When we won the ball, we were thinking forward and looking to hurt them, and in our build-up play, we were looking to break lines with our passing, rather than just keeping the ball in front of them.

'Most of the elements of our performance were there, although we would like to see the team look after the ball a bit better in the final third and sustain pressure a little bit more.

'On the whole, it was a really pleasing display, and we had chances to win by a bigger margin.'

It will no doubt be a case of looking for more of the same, then, when our play-off campaign gets under way on Friday and the Under-21s take aim at our first Premier League 2 title since 2020.