FA Youth Cup Final Thread - Chelsea Home First Leg

[Absent Friend 0]

From McFadden''s brilliant tackle in the first minute to McGeehan''s superb penalty in the last that was surely the best Canaries performance at Carrow Rd this season.  Not the Man U and Arsenal games?  No, because the opponents didn''t really turn up in those games.  The Chelsea lads can''t be accused of that - they were very impressive and gave it their all. And we still beat them.  Fantastic.

[Highland Canary 76]

Super pen. Right behind the goal in the N&P tonight. Well done to the U18s.

[First Wazzock 902]

Brilliant game.

Harry Toffolo my MOM, thought he was outstanding.

[AJ 1,218]

A really tight game. Chelsea played some fantastic football at times, and they really made Norwich work hard, which I thought bought the best out of them. Best performance from the lads so far, and their reward is the advantage going into the second leg.

Great game all round, and a huge crowd too!

Also shout out to Toffolo for keeping his cool for the penalty - no pressure!

[AJ 1,218]

Apologies, that should be McGeehan, of course!

[Herman 9,750]

Agreed AJ.Definitely their best all round game so far from what I have seen. I was concerned that Chelsea would have too much but they handled them extremely well.

The future is bright. .......

[star_manic 0]

[quote user="First Wazzock"]

Brilliant game.

Harry Toffolo my MOM, thought he was outstanding.

[/quote]agree with you Wazz, though to single one lad out is probably a bit unfair to the rest of the squad as they were all superb. Toffolo, Wyatt, Morris and McGeehan look likely to make the grade soonest, with all the others not far behind.

[AJ 1,218]

I thought the Murphy''s played better last night too. Number 6 (Jacob?) is a lot more direct than his brother, getting crosses in and beating players. Joshua seems a bit more hesitant, but both have bags of potential.

It''s shame, aside of setting Morris through once to sadly slice over, that the final ball was a bit poor at times. There were two or three occasions where a tidy through ball would have put us through on goal. All in all though, probably just about deserved the lead ahead of a tricky second leg

[star_manic 0]

[quote user="AJ"]I thought the Murphy''s played better last night too. Number 6 (Jacob?) is a lot more direct than his brother, getting crosses in and beating players. Joshua seems a bit more hesitant, but both have bags of potential.

It''s shame, aside of setting Morris through once to sadly slice over, that the final ball was a bit poor at times. There were two or three occasions where a tidy through ball would have put us through on goal. All in all though, probably just about deserved the lead ahead of a tricky second leg[/quote]Number 6 was Harry Toffolo. the Murphys are 7 and 11 and in alphabetical order. i.e. Jacob is #7 and Joshua is #11. they could end up exceptional players, they have an abundance of abilities, but they have much to learn yet.

[ZLF 274]

Chelsea were impressive esp with their one touch passing, with confidence on the ball evident all over the pitch and great pace.   Ake did ooze confidence but Baker (6) really stood out for me. It will be a tough return leg.   

 

We could easily have gone in 2-3 behind but some great defending,  poor finishing,  a bit of luck and enormous work ethic kept us going.

 

Second half was a different beast,   we lost the respect we had shown them in the first half and defended higher up the pitch,  pressing the ball and it worked and disrupted the chelsea passing game.  It frustrated them (hence the bad late tackle on young at the end of teh game) and gave us the edge - and deservedly won as a direct result of that pressing, with Randall winning the ball and setting Josh free deep in teh chelsea half. 

 

I agree with AJ that the final ball was poor and its perfectly set up for the return final leg

[It's Character Forming 1,160]

I thought Chelsea were very impressive in the first half and had several excellent chances to go ahead.  Normally when you have the ball cleared off the line more than once, the other side press home their advantage and score.  Good defending but Chelsea certainly looked better in the first half.

Second half we were much better and created some good chances, not quite as good as Chelsea''s in the first half, but good scoring chances.  But overall in the 2nd half I thought we were probably looking like the better side which is fantastic when you look at the individuals in the Chelsea side.  Both Murphy brothers looked better than they had in the semis (either leg) which bodes well - excellent team play from them both I thought, plus as people have pointed out a lot of good other individual performances.

 

0-0 would have been fair but we kept pressing until the end and it was a good opening that led to the pen, no doubt about it either.  How impressive to take a penalty so well under that much pressure !

 

It makes you think when you realise the Chelsea CB (Ake) has played 3 times for the first team already, our lads did really well up against that calibre of player.

 

Delighted for the lads.  Regardless of the 2nd leg outcome they can be proud of themselves.

[pete_norw 0]

 

Its a shame that Sky think that broken seats in the SPL celtic and rangers youth match serves as more important news, been sitting and waiting for them to mention it, or did I blink and miss it?

[blahblahblah 2]

A couple of years ago, I bought a car.  The salesman was a well presented, polite young man in his early 20s and a sharp suit, a nice lad who I shall call John.  It turned out, during the test drive, that John used to be an academy footballer who was let go by his club - some of the lads he played with, grew up with, went on to make it to some level in the game.  One of them offered him a season ticket to come and see him play.  I''d heard of the player, and mentioned that I thought he was a handy player - "he''s not that good" said John, with a smile that suggested "I could beat him".For lads like John, last night would have been the pinnacle of their footballing careers.  To play in front of thousands, to a crowd like that, is a rare blessing for most, who try to do what they love to the best of their ability - whether they perform in sports, theatre or otherwise.  Numbers dictate that a lot of those you saw last night can''t make as full-time professionals, possibly most of the 25 who played.  But there we were getting great value for our 2 quid - some of the passes and runs wouldn''t have been out of place in the Premiership - and as a unit, as a crowd of 21,500, making a night will mean a lot in years to come to those lads who couldn''t quite get there, as they make the same trudge to their day jobs as we do now, in a few years time.My abiding feeling from last night is one of immense pride in the city I grew up in.  Even the half time march around the pitch by the academy boys was applauded extremely well by those of us who weren''t munching on pies / buying a pint.  The whole evening just felt good.Congratulations to all associated with the club - amid the pant-wetting on this forum, there is a lot to be grateful, and hopeful for in the future.

[AJ 1,218]

star_manic, was a typo sorry, I meant number 7!

Are many of you planning on making the return leg?

[nutty nigel 7,527]

Great post Blah[Y]

 

It was fantastic to be there. I''ve now been to both semis and this game. Gutted that I''m away and can''t go to Chelsea.  Watching the different age groups at half time with their coaches would have made anyone proud. As does the knowledge that we are now a cat one academy. And Dave Stringer with a few of the old boys from 83 tagging on their tails. Have this team got more of a chance than the 83 boys? Does the under 21 competition give them more of a chance to progress?

 

 

[blahblahblah 2]

Was great to see Dave Stringer too nutty !  Structured competition does tend to improve performance I''d suggest.  As for who will succeed, who knows, but our number 6 (Toffolo ?) looked very handy, and the Murphy brothers stood out for me - the Louis Walsh in me says "They rem-oind me of 2 young Disco Dale Gordons".  As always with Norwich (Theoklitos accepted), our keeper looked handy too.  But they won the game as a unit, and it will be a shame when that unit breaks up.I just wish we''d got a chant of "Neil Adams Green Army" going... :)

[morty 0]

[quote user="blahblahblah"]Was great to see Dave Stringer too nutty !  Structured competition does tend to improve performance I''d suggest.  As for who will succeed, who knows, but our number 6 (Toffolo ?) looked very handy, and the Murphy brothers stood out for me - the Louis Walsh in me says "They rem-oind me of 2 young Disco Dale Gordons".  As always with Norwich (Theoklitos accepted), our keeper looked handy too.  But they won the game as a unit, and it will be a shame when that unit breaks up.I just wish we''d got a chant of "Neil Adams Green Army" going... :)[/quote]Someone was telling me "our" keeper isn''t actually ours, he''s on loan from Southampton.Not sure how true that is.

[blahblahblah 2]

Actually morty I think you''re right - he''s here on work experience if I recall correctly.  And what an experience, eh ?

[morty 0]

[quote user="blahblahblah"]Actually morty I think you''re right - he''s here on work experience if I recall correctly.  And what an experience, eh ?[/quote]Considering our track record of producing keepers, its a bit disappointing it wasn''t one of our own lads between the sticks.

[blahblahblah 2]

If he stays, he will be one of ours.  I wonder how many of the Chelsea team were "bought" from lower league teams at the age of 14 / 15...