U18s Report: Saints 4-0 Chelsea

Confident in possession and ruthlessly competitive without it, Saints cruised to victory over the league leaders on Saturday afternoon, goals from Harry Hamblin, Harlem Hale, Christoph Klarer and Michael Obafemi sealing the points.

Visitors Chelsea came into the game unbeaten in the U18 Premier League averaging more than three goals a game but it was Southampton who commanded proceedings throughout.

The hosts’ high press unsettled the visitors from the off, with Javen Siu and Jake Vokins both capitalising on hesitation in the away defence to shoot narrowly wide inside 10 minutes.

By the half-hour mark, Saints’ energy and organisation was seeing every loose ball go their way and only a last-ditch interception from Dynel Simeu prevented Siu from charging in on the goalkeeper, one-on-one.

It was a matter of time before the deadlock was broken and deservedly it was Danny Butterfield’s boys that did so five minutes before the break.

Will Smallbone’s inswinging free-kick caused confusion in the area as Hamblin got the slightest of touches to help the ball on its way into the far corner.

One became two within a matter of minutes. Not for the first time, pressure from the lively Will Ferry turned possession over inside the Chelsea half and the winger crossed precisely from the byline for Hale to volley in unmarked at the back post.

Coaches Danny Butterfield and Craig Fleming will have asked for more of the same at the interval and that is exactly what their young charges produced when the teams emerged into the driving rain at Staplewood.

For, no sooner had the two teams settled back in for the second period, Saints had added a third. Chelsea failed to clear another Smallbone delivery from wide, allowing Klarer to pounce and calmly stroke home from 12 yards out.

With the visitors throwing bodies forward in search of a way back into contention, the hosts remained the more likely to score again on the counter-attack, Michael Obafemi a constant out-ball for the boys in red and white.

As the game began to stretch, the Saints frontman might have added a goal and an assist to an industrious showing, teeing up Siu to smash into the side-netting before a mazy dribble and shot stung the palms of goalkeeper Nicolas Tie.

A spell of Chelsea pressure followed as the clock ticked towards the final whistle but predictably the game's final act of quality came at the other end as Obafemi raced onto Ferry's through pass to slide confidently into the corner in stoppage time.