No Room at the Inn for Sam

By The Kid
December 17 2005

The Academy got Chelsea's weekend off to a winning start by beating Charlton Athletic at Cobham this morning. Scott Sinclair scored his tenth goal of the season which was enough to secure the youngsters victory.

 Ten goals in only sixteen Academy appearances makes Scott's price paid to Bristol Rovers cheap at half the price.

Although Scott was the hero in grabbing the winner eight minutes before half-time, coach Brendan Rodgers was grateful to young Chelsea goalkeeper James Russell for saving a Charlton penalty after Harry Worley's cumbersome challenge.

Rodgers said "He made a great save low to his left hand corner, palming the ball away."

Today's game had been re-arranged from last weekend to allow the Academy to prepare for the win at Norwich in the FA Youth Cup and Rodgers was delighted at the response. He said "We’ve had a terrific six months, and we wanted to finish this last game before we break up for Christmas winning, collecting points. It would have been easy to lose focus. But we did it, and Scotty Sinclair got the winner again."

In addition to scoring the winner, Scott hit the woodwork as did Liam Bridcutt and Chelsea were also denied by fine goalkeeping from Charlton's goalkeeper.

"We could have won by a lot more," says Brendan. "Their goalkeeper made a number of very good saves from Scott, his pace and ability caused problems for them all game."

As as postnote, Chelsea have been drawn away in the next round of the Youth Cup to Brighton after they beat Port Vale.

Team: Russell; J Younghusband, Worley, Cork (c), Hutchinson; Bridcutt, Furman; Fernandes (F Ferreira); Saarelma (Cummings), Watkins (P Younghusband), Sinclair.

 

40 YEARS A BLUE!