Our young Blues suffered a heavy 3-0 defeat at the hands of their London rivals West Ham United today. This is the team’s fourth loss in six games in all competitions.
The Under-18s were back in action today to kick off Chelsea’s weekend of fixtures as they had an away trip to West Ham United on Saturday morning.
Despite the league title seemingly looking out of reach, a win today would have taken our young Blues four points behind West Ham with a game-in-hand over our London rivals.
Harrison Murray-Campbell, who has predominantly been with the Under-16s this season, was given his third start on the bounce at Under-18s level. Prince Adegoke, Jimi Tauriainen, Leo Castledine and Tudor Mendel-Idowu were the other players to be drafted into the starting line-up, after all being on the bench for last week’s win against Tottenham Hotspur.
The first half was a very quiet one with both sides having spells of possession but no real threats to either keeper’s goal.
With a couple of half-time substitutions from both sides the first goal arrived and fell the way of the hosts as just before the hour mark Remy Coddington calmly put away his opportunity after being put through by Oliver Scarles.
Our young Blues pushed for an equaliser to further our own attempts to win the game and dent the home side’s title hopes, but our advances were halted as the Hammers doubled their lead. Pressure in the box led to Murray-Campbell turning the ball into his own net with 10 minutes to go.
With the game fizzling out, the Hammers had enough time to grab a third and condemn our young Blues to their seventh loss of the season.
Our boys will be back in action very quickly, as they go up against Birmingham City on Tuesday. There are now three games left in the Under-18 Premier League for the young Blues.
Chelsea (3-4-3): Prince Adegoke; Brodie Hughes, Harrison Murray-Campbell, Luke Badley-Morgan; Jimi Tauriainen (c), Leo Castledine, Edwin Andersson, Zain Silcott-Duberry (Sam Rak-Saky 46); Louis Flower (Travis Akomeah 80), Malik Mothersille, Tudor Mendel-Idowu (Donnell McNeilly 46)Unused sub: Max Merrick
West Ham United (4-2-3-1): Jacob Knightsbridge; Junior Robinson, Kaelan Casey, Regan Clayton, Michael Forbes; George Earthy, Oliver Scarles; Remy Coddinghton (Callum Marshall 64), Archie Woods (Asher Falase 86), Lewis Orford; Divin Mubama (Gideon Kodua 81)Unused sub: Mason TerryScorers: Remy Coddington 58, Harrison Murray-Campbell 79 (OG), Gideon Kodua 85Booked: Oliver Scarles 73