Chesea Youth 3 Portsmouth Youth 2

[EskWeston 696]

Chelsea's Under 18s side secured another home win at a chilly Cobham today as they saw off visitors Portsmouth.

Goals came from Bobby Devyne, Billy Knott (pictured) and Aliu Djaloas Chelsea put ourselves back in the lead following a Portsmouthequaliser in the first half.

Despite the final score however, the game was a fairly uneventfulaffair and the Blues struggled to compete with a tough Pompeyperformance.

It took 19 minutes for the deadlock to be broken when some beautifulfootball from Chelsea left the Portsmouth defence confused, givingKnott time to send a cross skimming along the line for a determinedDevyne to slide onto, tapping in with ease.

Within four minutes Portsmouth had equalised. James Jannings leapthigh to head a dangerous cross beyond the line at the far post whileChelsea keeper Aldi Haxhia could only watch.

The half would finish in Chelsea's favour when Deen-Conteh made aproductive run down the left flank to win a corner. The subsequent ballwas sent in by Anton Rodgers for Marco Mitrovic to try and head.

When his attempt was blocked the ball span out to Knott who smashedhome a trademark left-footed strike which ricocheted off the Portsmouthdefence and into the goal. It is the fourth game running Knott hasscored in.

Dermot Drummy made two changes at half time, replacing Mitrovic with Philipp Prosenik and Rodgers with James Ashton.

Further into the half Nathaniel Chalobah (fresh from an EnglandUnder 17s qualification tournament) made his Under 18 debut replacingTom Hayden in the back line.

But despite the changes, the second half didn't see much activity as the two midfields battled for possession.

It wasn't until the 68th minute that Chelsea would increase the lead and this time it was captain Djalo finding the net.

Knott had released a cross destined for Prosenik, but when the ballwas blocked it fell to Djalo just inside the box. He expertly drilledhome a shot into the bottom right.

Devyne and Knott then had chances, feeding off balls from Ashton andDeen-Conteh respectively, but it was Portsmouth who would score thefinal goal.

With 78 minutes played, Pablo Navas launched a wonder strike pastHaxhia from 25 yards out, beating the Chelsea keeper who could onlywatch as the ball hit the net.

The Blues immediately retaliated when Deen-Conteh broke once again,curling a cross towards the far post where Prosenik connected cleanly.Unfortunately he only managed to head into Tommy Smith's hands betweenthe Pompey posts for the last chance of the game.

'A 3-2 win in terms of the table keeps us up there,' said Drummyafter the game, 'but I'm not happy, we can play better than that.

'It wasn't the standard we have been setting this season andfortunately the opposition let us into the game a little, Billy Knottdid play well though.'

Chelsea (4-3-3): Aldi Haxhia; Ben Sampayo, TomHayden (Nathaniel Chalobah 59), Kenny Strickland, Aziz Deen-Conteh;Anton Rodgers (James Ashton h-t), George Saville, Aliu Djalo ©; BobbyDevyne, Marco Mitrovic (Philipp Prosenik h-t), Billy Knott.

Source: Chelsea FC