The report

Chelsea made a flying start to the match and took the lead inside two minutes. It came from good work down the left by Ato Ampah, before feeding the overlapping Ishe Samuels-Smith. When the ball was cut back towards the penalty spot, schoolboy Yahya Idrissi - making his first start for our Under-18s - rolled a composed first-time finish into the bottom corner.

Despite that opening, it was a first half low on clear chances at either end. The closest anyone came to adding to the scoreline was when Ampah cut in from the left and tried to curl a shot from the edge of the box, but it was a comfortable save for the keeper.

That all changed just before the break. Chinonso Chibueze was brought down in a promising position and Reiss Denny stepped up to curl a brilliant free-kick in off the right-hand post from 25 yards.

Our advantage was back to a single goal by the time we went in, though. West Brom were awarded a free-kick in an almost identical position, and the outcome was pretty much the same, Cole Deeming arcing his effort into the top corner.

The second half was similarly low on chances, Ampah again producing Chelsea's best effort when coming in off the wing onto his right foot, but Louis Brady in the West Brom goal was equal to the shot on this occasion too, and gathered up the rebound before Chibueze could pounce.

West Brom had started to show their threat from set-pieces, with Luke Campbell making a brilliant reaction save down low to deny Souleyman Mandey from close range, after a free-kick resulted in a scramble in the box.

However, in stoppage time the home side did level the scores. When the delivery came in from the right, the backpedalling Travis Akomeah couldn't get enough on his header to clear. Campbell got across to prevent the cross going straight in at the back post, but couldn't react quickly enough to keep the follow-up by Esoasa Sule from finding the net.

Despite ending with just the solitary point in the Midlands, it was enough to open a one-point gap at the top of the Under-18 Premier League southern table for the Blues, as West Ham United were beaten by Arsenal earlier on Saturday.

The reaction

Under-18s head coach Hassan Sulaiman saw some positives for the Blues in the game, despite not being able to take all three points, particularly with a young line-up including three schoolboys and two making their full debut at this level.

'We had three Under-16s starting, which is always positive, and we had an Under-15 on the bench who came on in the final minutes, so when you look at what we set up with in terms of the line-up, there are loads of positives to take,' said Sulaiman.

'We began the game well, going 1-0 up, in a good positive start. We controlled large parts of the game and broke into the final third, but it was quite a balanced first half I thought, because they also had some decent spells in possession, without really hurting us.

'I thought we contained some of their threats well. They wanted to go in behind but we dealt with it, we dealt defensively with a lot of their long balls, we won the first contact and were picking up second balls.

'We haven’t come up against another side as direct as West Brom were in this game. They were strong as well, they had some powerful players. They made us work defensively, they wanted to pick up second balls and third balls, so we had to compete.'

Ultimately, Sulaiman knows it was two moments late in each half which cost the Blues two points on Saturday.

'We scored a free-kick from Reiss, which was a fantastic goal. Then we just didn’t manage the game until half-time, which was probably naive on our part, so we let them get back into the game by getting a goal just before half-time.

'When we started the second half, I felt it was very similar to the first. We had spells when we had good control, although we didn’t get very many clear-cut opportunities. We had some entries into the box but couldn’t quite find the final pass or finish. Just a little bit of quality in the final third probably let us down.

'Then, again, in the last knockings of the second half we conceded. It was disappointing, maybe a lapse in concentration, perhaps a bit of fatigue starting to build.

'So to draw 2-2 was disappointing on our part, but in hindsight probably a fair result, because West Brom gave us a good game. It was a real contrast to the home fixture against them when we beat them 9-1.'

The teams

West Bromwich Albion 2-2 Chelsea

Chelsea (4-2-3-1): Luke Campbell; Harrison Murray-Campbell, Travis Akomeah (c), Kaiden Wilson, Ishe Samuels-Smith; Reiss Denny, Sol Gordon (Marcell Washington 81); Chinonso Chibueze (Shaun Wade 59), Kobe Barbour, Ato Ampah (Ryan Kavuma-McQueen 86); Yahya Idrissi (Donnell McNeilly 59)
Unused sub: Freddy Bernal
Scorers: Idrissi 2, Denny 45
Booked: Murray-Campbell 26, Gordon 61, Chibueze 61

West Brom (4-2-3-1): Louis Brady, Deago Nelson, Evan Humphries, Cole Deeming, Noah Dupont (Corey Sears 76), Rhys Morrish, Adriel Walker (Eseosa Sule 66), Kevin Mfuamba, Dan Chimeziri (Sam Beedie 66), Souleyman Mandey, Fran Cherchi (Archie Kirton 66)
Unused sub: Liam Wilkes
Scorers: Deeming 45+2, Sule 90+2
Booked: Mfuamba 37