Our Academy's season finished on Sunday afternoon at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, where Spurs found a stoppage-time winner to eliminate our Under-21s from the Premier League 2 play-offs in the semi-finals.

Chelsea started the match brightly, with Josh Acheampong having the first chance at goal within the opening five minutes. However, it was Will Lankshear who found the opener for Tottenham 10 minutes later.

The Blues responded well, though. We continued to build momentum with scoring opportunities for Jimi Tauriainen and Tyrique George, before substitute Deivid Washington eventually found the bottom corner to equalise from Zak Sturge's cross in the second half.

Despite continuing to battle for another goal, going close with a powerful Diego Moreira strike, it was John Nile who secured the late winner during stoppage time, ending Chelsea Under-21s' season.

Mark Robinson chose to focus on the positives, though, despite the frustration of knowing minor moments throughout the game had a significant impact on the final score.

‘Obviously, we are disappointed,’ Robinson said. ‘Overall, I felt that we were the stronger side and had the better chances.

‘There are always things you would like to do better, and could have done better. However, on the whole, given the age of our squad compared to others in the league, we played well.

‘I felt we particularly played well in the second half, as we became even more dominant, which resulted in us getting the equaliser. It was a game full of small margins that could have swung either way.’

Chelsea dominated most of the possession throughout the clash and came close to scoring on a number of occasions through impressive link-up play, which eventually led to the equaliser. Kiano Dyer initiated the play with Sturge, who delivered a pin-point cross for Deivid to find the net from close range.

Robinson continued: ‘We had key moments at certain times. Their goal came against the run of play, which we should have dealt with better, but we reacted well and created opportunities to hit back.

‘Once we got the goal, I thought the momentum would take us through to get the winner, as it did in our previous play-off fixtures.

‘Unfortunately, their second goal came from a defensive slip-up, but again, we continued to hit back. One of our chances even hit the post.

‘The Spurs keeper did a brilliant job, pulling off an incredible save at the end of stoppage time to deny our last attempt. It shows how important those little details are to your finishing touches.

‘Throughout the game, we reacted well and remained positive, which is crucial in these knockout games. At times, we were relentless.'

Robinson made a quadruple substitution in the 66th minute to switch up the play and add energy to the game, which had a significant influence as Deivid found the equaliser moments later. The head coach underlined the importance of subs making a difference and the large influence they have during the match.

‘We talk a lot about the substitutes making a difference, the importance of bringing energy to the fixture.

‘The subs need to understand what having an impact looks like and I thought all the players did that. They listened to my directions and brought new energy to the game, which paid off, as then we got our goal.’

Robinson finished by highlighting that while victory and silverware is always a target, it is not the be all and end all of Academy football, with the learning experience this semi-final provided for the younger members of the team particularly important in the long term.

‘We have a young squad, and they continued to fight until the end. It would have been an easy choice to bring in some of the older players, but we decided to go for the younger ones, which just shows their talent.

‘We had the opportunity to use the players who have come back from loans in the Championship, especially with some of our regular Under-21s starters out injured, but we decided to continue giving more time to Under-18s players.

'I know we always want to win, but those loan players' PL2 time is over, they've moved on now to the next stage of their careers, whereas the experience of games like this will be massive for those who did play. So despite the result I am still glad that we stuck with developing the younger players and giving them an opportunity that nearly paid off.’