We travelled away to Crystal Palace in the penultimate fixture of the league stage of our campaign, with our place in the Premier League 2 title play-offs already secured, but our opponents’ chances of joining us in the knockout rounds hanging precariously in the balance.

Chelsea went behind shortly after half-time and were two down on the hour, but Deivid Washington started the comeback with a fine finish on the turn before Zak Sturge fired us level from a corner with 10 minutes left on the clock.

We weren’t able to make it three wins in a row at Under-21s level, but given how much more was riding on the game for the home side, it was perhaps always going to be a difficult game.

‘When you are looking for a quality performance from the team you have to address different areas of performance for different games,’ said head coach Mark Robinson.

‘With us now qualified for the play-offs, and this being a game Palace really needed to win, it was important that our purpose to win the game was greater than theirs. Ideally just putting on a Chelsea shirt would be enough motivation but we are humans and we behave and perform off emotion, so painting pictures for the players can often be important when the opposition has a greater extrinsic motivation to win.’

The tricky surface at the VBS Community Stadium provided its own challenge for the team too, and it is one many of the Blues will not be used to contending with in Academy football.

‘There was also the challenge of the pitch,’ added Robinson. ‘It's very easy to be cliched and say "quality players can play on anything and it's the same for both teams", but the actual reality of the situation is a difficult surface will affect technical aspects.

‘It's not the same for both teams because Palace play on it regularly and there will be elements of their play where they know they can get success from the surface. Rightly or wrongly, our players very rarely play or train on this kind of surface and you are always a product of your learning environment.

‘We did our best to address this in training with the players but, when a lot of your style is about ball speed and breaking lines with passing and movement, if that ball speed slows down dramatically because of the care you are having to take to keep the ball on the floor then usual opportunities to hurt the opposition disappear.

‘This resulted in us playing more straighter passes than we would like and straight passes for straight runs are rarely productive and something we would normally avoid.

‘When you are faced with this challenge you need certain players in certain areas of the pitch to be strong and retain possession for you and allow you to build. On the night they did that better than us because it is something they do regularly.

‘I have no problem with that because it just shows areas of individuals’ game that needs to be worked on, because different games throw up different challenges.’

So, while Chelsea weren’t able to take all three points at Crystal Palace, Robinson wasn’t disheartened by the outcome, as it was a game which provided some important experience for young players and there were positives to reflect on, particularly during the second-half fightback.

‘Although we were far from our best we started with four Under-18s and finished with eight on the pitch, so again we were significantly younger than the opposition and we managed to find a way to get a result, which is hugely important for their development.

‘It would have been a very new challenge for some of the players and once we reflect they will take loads of learning from it.

‘I cannot say we deserved to win on the balance of play but we created as many clear-cut chances and, once we equalised, if anyone was going to win it then it was us, and we had two chances to do so.

‘I was really pleased with our substitutes’ impact too, which has not always been the case this season.

‘So on the whole it was a night where we had many positive development outcomes that the players need to keep hold of for the future.’