Our young Blues pulled off a massive comeback this afternoon against Norwich City to maintain our title hopes. On the scoresheet today at Cobham were Zain Silcott-Duberry, Billy Gee and a late winner from Jude Soonsup-Bell as we cut the gap at the top to seven points with two games in hand.
Following our midweek draw against Reading, Ed Brand’s side were looking to sustain their title challenge by securing three points against bottom-of-the-table Norwich who have only won once all season.
There was one change to the side that shared the spoils with the Royals as Jude Soonsup-Bell came into the side.
It was an even start between the Canaries and our young Blues and from the intensity they showed in the opening moments, you would not have known that the away side had only won once. A turnover in possession from the away side allowed Alex Matos to be played through down the left, he ignored the help in the middle, and his left-footed shot found the far corner of the net giving Norwich the lead.
Following good chances from Tudor Mendel-Idowu and Soonsup-Bell, we got our equaliser as a well-worked move found Zain Silcott-Duberry to score his second in as many games.
We did control possession, but it was Norwich who scored next as a fast counter released Ken Aboh who used his pace to beat his man and then composed himself to finish past Ted Curd.
We had a big chance in the opening moments of the second half as a whipped-in free-kick from Jimi Tauriainen took a number of deflections which diverted the ball goalwards with keeper Jayden St. Paul pulling off a great save.
The Blues were building the pressure on our opponents, but we spurned a number of chances; Louis Flower, Soonsup-Bell and Ronnie Stutter all with good opportunities to score.
We found our equaliser as a Tauriainen enticing delivery from a corner found Billy Gee whose initial shot was saved but he managed to turn in the rebound.
With only a couple minutes to go we grabbed what was the winner. A lovely, flighted ball from Josh Tobin found Flower who cut the ball back to Soonsup-Bell who controlled his finish into the far post.
A massive win and fantastic comeback from our young Blues.
Chelsea (3-4-2-1): Ted Curd; Billy Gee, Josh Tobin, Derrick Abu; Ato Ampah (Louis Flower 59), Jimi Tauriainen, Leo Castledine (c), Zain Silcott-Duberry; Tudor Mendel-Idowu, Ronnie Stutter, Jude Soonsup-Bell.
Unused subs: Max Merrick, Tyrique George, Noah Hay, Michael Golding.Scorers: Zain Silcott-Duberry 25; Billy Gee 77; Jude Soonsup-Bell 88.Booked: Ato Ampah 45; Jude Soonsup-Bell 90+5.
Norwich (3-4-3): Jayden St. Paul; Oscar Thorn, Osman Foyo, Waylon Renecke, Lewis Shipley (c) (Benjy McCabe 65), Sol Hamilton, Kenny Coker, Joe Duffy, Ken Aboh (Michael Reindorf 65), Alex Matos (Finley Welch 45), Dubem Eze.
Unused subs: Reece Trueman.Scorers: Alex Matos 10; Ken Aboh 37.Booked: Dubem Eze 81.