Going into Saturday's match, our Under-18s were three points behind league leaders and that day's opponents West Ham United, with three games extra still to play. A 4-3 triumph at Cobham saw us leapfrog the Hammers into first place courtesy of our superior goal difference.

We had to come from behind though, as West Ham took a first-half lead from the penalty spot. Thankfully Donnell McNeilly capitalised on a defensive error to equalise before half-time and Under-18s head coach Hassan Sulaiman felt going in level was the least we deserved at the break.

'I thought that we certainly had more possession of the ball in the first half and we were the better side,' said Sulaiman.

'They had an early lead through a penalty, which I didn’t think was a penalty, but at no point in that first half did I feel as though our backs were against the wall. We were in control and after we scored the equaliser we maintained control.

'Even though West Ham had a few opportunities where they broke into our half, I don’t think they caused us much threat. We also had really good moments when we managed to beat their press, break the first and second lines, and then have a number of fast attacks.

'Those are the things we have been working on, making sure that once we’ve broken the opposition's press, we break forward as quickly as possible, accelerating the tempo. We did that on a number of occasions.

'Where we probably lacked something in that first half was in the final third, where we just needed a little bit of quality. It was just the final action, or the action before the final action, which was probably missing, but we put that right in the second half.'

Indeed we did. An excellent spell of pressure resulted in the Blues finding the net three times in the space of four minutes, as Tyrique George hit a brace before Ato Ampah put us 4-1 up just before the hour mark. With West Ham finding no answer to some slick moves opening up space around the box, it was arguably one of our Under-18s' best attacking performances of the season so far.

'I’d say that it was up there because we were fast, we were aggressive and we were strong,' added Hassan. 'It was patient build-up play to beat the opposition’s press and then we managed to break quickly. While that action in the final third wasn’t great in the first half, it certainly was for the majority of the second.

'We had quite a number of opportunities and 16 shots on target overall. That number of efforts on target was testament to what we did better in the second half. We managed to score another three goals and their goalkeeper pulled off a number of saves, keeping them in the game.'

Some of the gloss was taken off the win by two West Ham goals towards the end, as the visitors pulled it back to 4-3 with three minutes remaining.

Sulaiman admits that was a cause for concern, but it did nothing to alter his belief that the Blues were fully deserving of an important victory in the title race and our spot at the top of the table.

'We could have and we should have killed them off after we got a flurry of goals. Sometimes you have all these efforts and then the goals all come at once and this was an example. Every opportunity we had went in for that period.

'Momentum is a big part of football in general, but especially youth development football and with the magnitude of this game for both teams. We had a little bit of a cushion because of our three games in hand, but we showed a relentlessness to keep going and want to score again and again. I thought that was great to see.

'The only thing we could probably question was our last 10 minutes, which was a bit disappointing and almost allowed them to get back into the game. We were 4-1 up, had made a few subs, got a bit complacent, lost a bit of rhythm and allowed them to score two goals. Complacency and concentration, that’s where we could have been better in those last 10 minutes.

'So I think the scoreline was not a fair reflection of the game, because we should have been further ahead. But the most important thing is that we performed well for the large majority of the game and we managed to win it. That was important for us.'

With seven league games now remaining for our Under-18s, Sulaiman and his team will be hoping to improve on that front quickly to help secure another win in our next match against West Bromwich Albion on Saturday, to maintain our narrow advantage at the top of the table.