NORWICH City Academy beat Chelsea this afternoon at Colney Training Centre 2-1 in a very entertaining game.
Ricky Martin's side had to come from behind to earn a hard fought and well deserved win against the Blues with goals from Patrick Drmola and George Francomb.
City created an excellent chance to score after only eight minutes. Good build-up play resulted in an excellent first time cross from left-back Remy Gordon, which was met by a firm header from forward Patrick Drmola, however the Chelsea keeper made an outstanding save low down to his right to keep the scores level.
On 20 minutes forward Danny Kelly picked the ball up deep in midfield, turned and ran at goal but unfortunately shot wide of the target. Chelsea's first attempt at goal came on 22 minutes, but the effort was well saved by Peter Loveday in the Norwich goal.
Just after the half hour mark Norwich could have taken the lead, a ball flicked on by Drmola found the run of Kelly who shot wide when under pressure when the pass out wide to the unmarked Tyree Clarke would have been the better option.
Ten minutes before the break it was the visitors who came close to breaking the deadlock. The ball was spread wide following a quick break and the resulting low cross found the Chelsea forward whose first time shot flew over the City bar.
However, Chelsea did open the scoring a minute before the interval. A corner was not cleared and the onrushing Chelsea midfield player shot high into the Norwich net to give the visitors the lead.
Norwich did not let this blow affect their play and showed good character to equalise through Drmola within a minute. George Francomb flicked a high ball onto Kelly who played the ball into the path of his strike partner Drmola and his low shot found the bottom corner of the goal.
Half-Time: City 1 Chelsea 1
The first chance of the second half fell to Chelsea following a swift break on 52 minutes, however the shot was well over the bar.
On 54 minutes City had a great opportunity to take the lead, a diagonal ball forward from Dario Dumic found the head of Kelly, whose flick found sub Ryan Oakley, just on for Drmola, who helped the ball into the box. However, Francomb making a run from midfield lifted his shot over the keeper and agonisingly over the crossbar too.
The young Canaries were beginning to create a number of goalscoring chances and on the hour mark Oakley came close to scoring what would have been an excellent goal. Josh Dawkin ghosted past two defenders before slipping the ball into the path of Oakley, who beat his man well on the edge of the box and curled a shot destined for goal until the Chelsea keeper pulled off another excellent save.
On 72 minutes Tyree Clarke did well in the wide right position and his low cross was met by Oakley who put the ball wide form two yards out.
Just a minute later, Norwich got the goal their play deserved. Johnbull Osemwegie won the ball well in the centre of midfield and his through ball found Kelly one-on-one with the keeper. The Irish youth international's shot was saved but following up was Francomb to volley home the rebound.
With eight minutes remaining Norwich came close to extending their lead, sub Matt Ball - a replacement for Tyree Clarke - squeezed in a cross which was deflected, hit the post, rolled across the goal line and half cleared by the Chelsea defence, Oakley pounced on the loose ball but hit his shot over. City defended well for the remainder of the match and came away with a much deserved 2-1 win.
Full-Time: City 2 Chelsea 1
Speaking to canaries.co.uk after the match, academy manager Ricky Martin said: "I am delighted for the boys, I thought their work rate was outstanding and we created a number of good goalscoring chances against a very good Chelsea team. There were some excellent individual performances, but I was most pleased with the work ethic and determination of the whole team to go out and win the game."
City: Loveday, Brindley, Gordon, Osemwegie, Dumic, Habergham, Clarke (Ball 74), Francomb, Kelly, Drmola (Oakley 52), Dawkin. Subs not used: Nwaogu, Hewitt, A.Stephens.
