The young Blues created a number of opportunities in the second period but they could not unlock the Everton defence, making it one win in the last eight and heightening relegation fears. We are now four points adrift of Leeds United, the only side we can leapfrog out of the bottom two, with just three games remaining.

In the first half, defender Xavier Mbuyamba had our best chance as his looping header under pressure was headed off the line by Tom Cannon. Apart from that, the first period was dominated by Everton as they could have taken the lead early on after being awarded a soft penalty. Lewis Dobbin stepped up to take the spot-kick but Lucas Bergstrom saved well with a strong hand.

Dobbin soon had another opportunity, one-on-one with Bergstrom, but it was the big keeper who came out on top again. However, it was third time luck as Everton would not be denied, with Cannon finishiing well inside the box after a back-heel by Tyler Onyango. The lead was then doubled just after half-time as Rafael Garcia curled an effort from inside the box into the far corner of the goal.

Following two half time changes, our young Blues created a number of opportunities. Lewis Hall, Bashir Humphreys, Jude Soonsup-Bell and Josh Brooking all had sights of goal. However, a combination of good defending and good goalkeeping from Harry Tyler were enough to allow the home side to see the game out.

Cagey opening edged by Everton

It took five minutes for the game’s first chance and it fell to the home side as Garcia drove through the centre of the pitch and slid in a neat ball to Cannon, whose left-footed shot hit the side-netting in an early warning sign for the visitors.

There was no real flow to the game with both sides having spells of possession but a simple pass down the line isolated Dobbin with Mbuyamba. The young attacker managed to find his way past the Dutch defender and the referee adjudged him to have fouled Dobbin as he went down under his pressure.

Dobbin picked himself up to take the penalty, but Bergstrom was up to the task saving well with a strong left hand to keep the scores level.

The ball was now being moved better by the home side as our boys were trying to contain the Toffees. Bergstrom came out on top once again with a big save to deny Dobbin who had been played in by Isaac Price.

Early blow

We eventually settled into the game nicely after overcoming some early scares and from a Dylan Williams corner we almost opened the scoring. His whipped delivery found the head of Mbuyamba, who managed to get his head to the ball despite pressure from the keeper and an Everton defender. His aerial effort looped goalwards but Cannon was able to clear off the line.

After we were just finding our feet in the game, the Toffees were the ones who broke the deadlock as a Stan Mills long ball found Onyango clean through on goal. Brooking managed to recover the ground but the big midfielder composed himself to back-heel the ball towards Cannon, who fired into the right-hand bottom corner of the net.

Our boys needed to regroup quickly but we almost allowed Everton to double their lead as miscommunication between Mbuyamba and Dion Rankine allowed Cannon to drive towards goal. He could have laid off Dobbin but decided to go himself and fired well over the bar.

Thierno Ballo, who had a quiet first period, then unleashed a shot which just went over the bar, but our young Blues were struggling to create anything clear-cut with the half-time whistle approaching.

Mountain to climb

With half-time approaching and the Toffees in the ascendancy, it was important that we did not concede another before half-time. With the last attack of the first period however, Everton doubled their lead.

Stan Mills jinked his way into the box beating multiple opponents and hurdling a number of tackles before laying the ball off to Garcia, who used Brooking as a guide to bend it past Bergstrom. It was a painful blow before half-time for our young Blues.

Sustained pressure

Myers made two changes at the break and immediately the away side raised their impetus. Lewis Hall, one of those introduced, smashed an effort goalwards which was saved well by keeper Tyler, who was called into action again as Webster was slid in but his shot was tame and the keeper gobbled it up.

A slip from Tyler due to Chelsea pressure highlighted the change in momentum in the second period. Simons, after good work from Vale down the right, had a left-footed effort which again was saved by the busy Toffees keeper

The home side did remind our development squad of the threat they posed as Cannon isolated and beat Humphreys one-on-one and unleashed a shot which was saved well by the feet of Bergstrom. We had another opportunity to halve the deficit as Brooking swivelled and shot following a corner and it only just went over the bar.

Chance after chance

The pressure was relentless and after fantastic work on the right by Vale he stood up a cross for Humphreys to attack but again Tyler was positioned well to save. We also had strong shouts for a penalty as a high foot in the box on Humphreys clearly put the player in danger, but the referee waved away those claims.

A massive chance came our way as a blocked free-kick from Vale fell kindly back to Webster, who drove into the box and delivered across the face of goal. It seemingly gave Ballo a tap-in but a last-ditch challenge from captain Braithwaite prevented us from scoring.

Yet another opportunity fell our way as Soonsup-Bell this time beat his man down the left with a step-over from a tight angle before putting in a cross which the keeper got a hand to, thereby preventing it from landing to a Chelsea player.

Despite being deserving of a comeback we were left to rue the missed chances in the second half and the mountain we gave ourselves from the first. A 2-0 defeat now means that we remain four points behind Leeds, albeit with a game in hand over the young Yorkshiremen. With three matches remaining, it becomes paramount that we secure maximum points in all those games to ensure we put the pressure on the only team we can now leapfrog in the battle for PL2 survival.

Chelsea (3-4-3) Lucas Bergstrom; Josh Brooking, Xavier Mbuyamba (Lewis Hall h/t); Bashir Humphreys (c); Dion Rankine (Joe Haigh h/t), Xavier Simons, Charlie Webster, Dylan Williams; Thierno Ballo (Jayden Wareham 78), Harvey Vale, Jude Soonsup-BellUnused subs Teddy Sharman-Lowe, Ben ElliottBooked Humphreys 39; Ballo 66

Everton (5-3-2) Harry Tyler, Stan Mills (Luke Butterfield 80), Eli Campbell, Reece Welch, Jarrod Braithwaite (c), Isaac Price, Charlie Whitaker (Sean McAllister 65), Tyler Onyango, Lewis Dobbin, Tom Cannon, Rafa Garcia (Emilo Lawrence 87)Unused subs Joe Anderson, Billy CrellinScorers Cannon 32; Garcia 45+1Booked Campbell 90+5

In other news, our final PL2 fixture of the campaign has a new date. The clash with Tottenham has now been rescheduled for Friday 6 May, kick-off 7pm, at Kingsmeadow.