The Blues overcame a tough challenge to make it two wins in the space of four days in the Under-18 Premier League. But whereas the first of those was a comfortable 9-1 victory over West Bromwich Albion, the second required a very different kind of performance to come back and beat Southampton, although no less impressive.

Chelsea went in at the break 2-0 down at Cobham on Tuesday, and that was the way it remained with eight minutes remaining, despite a much improved performance in the second half. Travis Akomeah – who had scored an own goal to put Southampton two up – pulled one back and incredibly we kept going.

Early in added time, schoolboy substitute Rio Ngumoha marked his Under-18s debut by netting our equaliser, before providing the assist for Somto Boniface to score a dramatic 99th-minute winner for the Blues.

‘I told the boys they had unlocked another level with their second-half performance, because we have had some different challenges over the course of the first half of the season.

‘We have had really top games where we’ve performed well, we have had games where we haven’t performed well but managed to find a way to win, we’ve had a game where we’ve gone down to 10 men and overcome it to get the victory. This was the first game where we had to climb back from two goals down to win the game so late on.

‘The boys were tired – you could see they were shattered, physically – and Southampton defended really well to stop us from creating many clear chances, but we kept probing and we got there in the end. The boys went crazy when we scored the winner, and then saw the game out to take three points.'

It was the challenge of facing fresh and physical opponents with tired legs in the second of two matches in quick succession which Hassan believed was the most difficult to overcome.

‘It was the first time that the boys have played two fixtures over a four-day period this season, so it was a good physical challenge for them,’ he added. ‘It was pretty much the same team as well, with the only change being Luke Campbell coming in for Kai Crampton in goal.

‘We knew it was going to be a physical challenge, especially as Southampton were fresh off the back of not playing on Saturday. Having said that, we started the game in full control.

‘We failed to find our rhythm, by which I mean a fast tempo. We had possession of the ball, but they opted to go for a mid-block as opposed to a high press, which provided us with some challenges. It was quite tough to break them down, and they defended well.’

Sulaiman also explained how a timely intervention going into the half-time break helped turn things around ahead of the comeback.

‘Naturally, I observed the body language of the boys and, just before half-time, we started to foul a little bit more out of frustration. There was a little bit of restlessness, so we gathered them together before we got into the changing rooms and had a bit of chat to make sure that, when we went back into the changing room, everyone adopted a growth mindset and a solution-orientated approach.

‘We spoke about how we could make some slight adjustments to our performance, and we came back out and started really well.

‘After Travis’s goal we had all the momentum for the remainder of the game, as though the goal had lifted us. Suddenly, we believed that we could win the game.’

With the Academy Christmas break upon us, our Under-18s now have time to rest those tired legs and recuperate ahead of the next match, away at Leicester City on Saturday 6 January, with the Blues looking to continue our run of four consecutive victories in all competitions.

Chelsea 3-2 Southampton

Chelsea (4-2-3-1): Luke Campbell; Harrison Murray-Campbell, Kaiden Wilson, Travis Akomeah, Somto Boniface; Ollie Harrison, Harrison McMahon; Chinonso Chibueze (Reiss Denny 64), Donnell McNeilly, Frankie Runham (Rio Ngumoha 86); Shumaira Mheuka
Unused subs: Kai Crampton, Genesis Antwi, Saheed Olagunju
Scorers: Akomeah 82, Ngumoha 90+1, Boniface 90+9
Booked: Murray-Campbell 43, McMahon 45+1, McNeilly 90+11

Southampton (4-4-2): Dylan Moody, Abdulhalim Okonola-Matthews, Ben Sheaf, Aston Daley, Tommy Dobson-Ventura, Max Fry (Brogan Sewell 88), Will Merry, Moses Sesay, Isaac Bailey (Korban McMullan 77), Josh Pitts, Princewill Ehibhationham (Harry Gathercole 90+4)
Unused subs: Henry Upstell, James Martin
Scorers: Pitts 18, Akomeah og 42