The report

On a wet and windy afternoon in Middlesbrough, Chelsea Under-21s had a tough start as the conditions and well-organised opponents made it difficult to find our rhythm, and fell behind with 10 minutes of the first half remaining when we were hit on the counter.

Dujuan Richards, making his first start for our Academy since arriving in January, went closest to a quick response when he fired into the side-netting and Michael Golding was denied by the woodwork after the break, but we remained a goal behind as we approached the final five minutes of the game.

However, the breakthrough arrived when two substitutes combined. Leo Castledine headed a cross back into danger where Deivid Washington, who had a very strong penalty appeal waved away moments earlier, nodded past the goalkeeper from close range.

That opened the floodgates and we added two further goals to secure a dramatic victory. First Leo Castledine fired Golding's cross into the bottom corner with a good finish on the turn under pressure, then Ronnie Stutter placed another fine shot into the back of the net from the edge of the box to complete an incredible turn-around and make the three points safe.

The reaction

After the match, Mark Robinson began by discussing the youthful look to his side at Middlesbrough, and explaining how our opponents made life tough for us.

'With the busy schedule we’ve had, and bearing in mind we have a big game following this on Monday night, we tried to freshen up as much as we could for this game,' said Robinson. 'We started five Under-18s who haven’t really been working with the group, so it was a great opportunity for them.

'We faced a different sort of challenge against a Boro side who sat in a mid-deep block, which we hadn’t seen in the games of theirs that we watched in preparation. That is why it’s so important to develop players to be good decision-makers, so they can adapt to situations like that.'

That resulted in some clear challenges for the Blues during the first half, ending with us going in at the break 1-0 down.

'We lacked a bit of cohesion in the first half, but that’s no detriment to the boys who stepped into the side. We just didn’t quite have the same rhythm about our play as usual on a tight pitch against their mid-deep block.

'We were struggling a bit to come up with solutions to get them turning back towards their own goal, which you have to when teams are set up like that, whether you’re playing round them, through them, or finding clever passes in behind them.

'Although we had the possession and were arguably the more threatening, they did hit us on the break a couple of times in the first half.'

However, Robinson credited the higher tempo we introduced as the game went on with our ability to find the equaliser and eventually win the game, making it five victories out of five in the Premier League since the turn of the year.

'The half-time talk was about how we were going to break them down, get in behind them and create more opportunities. But we didn’t start the second half how we would have liked, and they had a couple of breaks, from which we did well not to concede again.

'Then we made some substitutions and started to move the ball quicker, playing with some real fluidity. We started to find the gaps, open them up, and we knew if we got the first goal, we would probably go on and get more. We started to drag them about, find space, and the goals duly came, with some quality.

'Bearing in mind the number of games we’ve played and the number of new lads coming in – who all did well – we were really pleased with the win. The lads showed they can find a way to win a game like that, which is really important in their development.'

The teams

Chelsea (3-4-1-2): Ted Sharman-Lowe; Brodi Hughes (c), Kaiden Wilson (Zak Sturge 65), Ishe Samuels-Smith; Genesis Antwi (Leo Castledine 55), Samuel Rak-Sakyi, Michael Golding, Richard Olise (Dylan Williams 55); Zain Silcott-Duberry (Shaun Wade 83); Dujuan Richards (Deivid Washington 65), Ronnie Stutter
Scorers: Deivid Washington 84, Castledine 87, Stutter 89

Middlesbrough (4-4-2): Shea Connor, George Gitau, Oliver Samuels, George McCormick, Jack Hannah, Afonso Lindo, Yacouba Traore, Aidan Bridge (Max Howells 72), Sonny Finch (Daniel Nkrumah 65), Pharrell Willis (Joseph Gibson h-t), Law McCabe (Frankie Whelan 90)
Unused sub: Henry Popple
Scorer: Finch 34
Booked: Traore 27