Despite a promising start to Saturday’s match at Cobham, which began with the Blues knowing a victory would mathematically seal our status as Under-18 Premier League southern champions, we found ourselves trailing to a Norwich City goal just before half-time.

Donnell McNeilly pulled one back on the hour mark, having had a penalty saved a minute earlier, but we were hit on the break again late on as the Canaries inflicted our Under-18s’ first league defeat since October.

With that unbeaten run and our chance to wrap up the southern title – booking our place in the national final against Manchester United in the process – with two games to spare at an end, head coach Hassan Sulaiman felt we dropped below our recent high standards.

‘We’re obviously really disappointed with the result, and we’re disappointed with the performance to be honest, because we didn’t match the levels which we’ve reached in recent weeks up until this point.

‘We’ve been playing some really good football, creating some really good chances and opportunities, defending well, but on this occasion I don’t think we quite found our flow and our rhythm throughout the game.’

It was that cutting edge at either end of the pitch which eventually cost us, as we found clear chances difficult to come by, while being caught out by long balls forward on a couple of occasions for a 2-1 defeat by stubborn counter-attacking Norwich.

‘We had some early chances in the first half which we didn’t take. Arguably we were a little bit selfish at times and we weren’t clinical enough, which didn’t help.

‘We went in at half-time and demanded a little bit more from the boys, in terms of what we do out of possession and refining what we do in possession, looking at how we can be a little bit better.

‘But then also, and this was from the start of the game, just making sure that mentally we didn’t take our foot off the gas, knowing that every game presents a different challenge, even if our opponents arguably hadn’t been in great form.

‘In this game the challenge was that they had a good game plan, they sat in a mid-block, they were very rigid with their movement out of possession and they made it difficult for us.

‘They frustrated us and then they played on the counter-attack, and that’s where they got their two goals. So all respect to them, of course, but for us it was definitely a frustrating day.’

Sulaiman felt that frustration was a big part of the problem, as at times we tried to rush things in the final third as the players felt time slipping away, given their desire to wrap up the title race with two games to spare.

However, he also hopes they can bounce back from that quickly by remembering they are still in the driving seat, remaining five points clear at the top of the table going into this week’s last two matches, at Southampton on Tuesday and Arsenal next Saturday.

‘There was definitely some frustration. It was obvious that we forced a few passes. We lacked some quality at times with the type of passes that we played and defensively we needed to be better in transition.

‘So of course we’re all disappointed. I’m disappointed but the players are definitely disappointed because they understood what they could have gone on to achieve this weekend.

‘But we’re still five points clear with two games left, it’s still in our hands, so now we need to take our next chance on Tuesday.’