Chelsea

4-0

Shrewsbury Town

Mellis 24, 52, van Aanholt 83, Woods 90+2

 

The FA Youth Cup Sponsored by E.ON
Fourth Round Proper 
7pm, Thursday 17 January 2008 
Griffin Park, Brentford FC
Click here for fixtures

Chelsea haven't won The FA Youth Cup for 47 years and have made little impact on the competition recently. Last night's comprehensive win at Griffin Park took them through to the Fifth Round for the first time since 1998.

But Paul Clement's current side, which now faces a home tie with Leicester City, contains a lot of talented individuals and has the potential to reach the latter stages this time. Shrewsbury packed their defence from the start, showing limited attacking intent, but were nearly a goal down in 30 seconds. Jasbir Singh rushed out to dive at Morten Nielsen's feet as he burst into the box.

Nielsen was linking well with Sergio Terjera up front and Chelsea had two wingers in Miroslav Stoch and Gael Kakuta who had the pace and guile to torment their respective opposing full-backs. Kakuta, in particular, fired in a series of low crosses from the left that should have produced at least a couple of goals.

Harry Hooman and Dan Pyle remained solid at the heart of Town's defence and the visitors managed to survive for 24 minutes. Then Nielsen's volley was deflected behind and Stoch's corner found Kakuta with his back to goal at the near post. He expertly back-heeled the ball across for Jacob Mellis to tap in from about three yards' range.

The score remained at 1-0 until the seventh minute of the second half. Terjera kept his balance well as a defender challenged from the side and took the ball into the box at speed. When he slid it across to the left, Mellis turned it in to double the Blues' lead. Town must have known that the game was up now, but they dug in to deny Chelsea a third until seven minutes from time.

Singh had just made a superb one-handed save to push Kakuta's fierce effort over the bar, when he made a mess of a soft shot along the ground from van Aanholt that trickled through his legs and into the net.

Michael Woods, a playing substitute for Chelsea in last season's FA Cup, scored the goal of the night in stoppage time. His right-foot volley from 25 yards beat Singh to his left before he could move.

Attendance: 616