YOUTH Academy Director Tony Carr described his side's
performance in the 2-1 defeat of Chelsea as one of the best
performances of the season.
Tony said: "It was a good resuly, but more importantly I was really pleased with the team's performance against Chelsea.
"The first-half in particular was as well as we've played all season. We played at a really high tempo, started the game well and looked very bright.
"The goals were two of the best you will see at this level and that start really rocked Chelsea because I don't think they expected us to play to that kind of level.
"It was a really strong performance in the first-half. They got a dubious penalty, but our goalkeeper Eren Kemal did excellently to save the spot-kick.
"Overall we were the better side and deserved the win. Chelsea had their chances in the second-half, but we always looked the better side and thoroughly deserved the three points."
In a week where the top four teams in the FA Premier Academy all played each other, Tony admitted that it was an important win.
He added: "Our game against Chelsea was second against third and Southampton played Arsenal, which was first plays fourth.
"I certainly took a keen interest in what was going on. Southampton won 2-1 in the other match, and us winning as well has put a cushion between us and the chasing teams.
"We're just going to focus on taking it game by game, but let's hope when Southampton come to play at Little Heath against us in January that there will only be a small gap.
"It's not going to be easy to catch Southampton. With Reserve team commitments it will sometimes mean putting a slightly younger team out.
"But that's just the way it is and we'll cope with that as best we can."