THE pubs stayed open later to celebrate VE Day and Chelsea fans poured out of Stamford Bridge to toast their stroll into the Conference League final.
Unfortunately, young Reggie Walsh was unable to join them.
At 16 years and 200 days old, the midfielder wouldn’t have got served without a fake ID.
But then the Year 11 schoolboy was giddy enough simply from becoming Chelsea’s youngest starter for almost 60 years last night. He didn’t need a pint to get light-headed.
Walsh was a surprise name on the start list for a European semi final given he only made his debut for the club’s Under 18s this football season.
It is also exam season and most boys of Walsh’s age will be busy revising or fretting about sitting in a silent hall being put to the test in a different way for their GCSEs.
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Chelsea’s newest talent to emerge from the academy was more worried about a misplaced pass or finding the going a bit tough on his big night.
Luckily, his more experienced team-mates took care of business with Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall rifling home a shot seven minutes before half time to rub salt into the wounds of the abject Swedes.
Chelsea are now on their way to Wroclaw – a picturesque part of Poland – and will bid to make history by becoming the first team to win all of their current trophies on offer: Champions League, Europa League, Super Cup and Conference League.
The Butcher’s Hook boozer opposite the ground where Chelsea was founded 120 years ago was allowed to stay open until 1AM to commemorate a different kind of victory in Europe in 1945.
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Walsh is unlikely to play in the final on May 28 but is considered an intelligent and composed character on the ball, He has already represented England at U-16, U-16 and U-17 level.
It’s credit to Chelsea that you don’t have to be a power lifter to at least get your chance – Billy Gilmour being the prime example of that.
Walsh came off the bench in last week’s first leg in Sweden to become the youngest player to turn out for the first team since Ian ‘Chico’ Hamilton in 1967.
With this tie already over as boss Enzo Maresca’s team enjoyed a comfortable 4-1 lead going into this return game and the opposition if you can call them that are truly dreadful, it was time to chill and take Chelsea’s renowned youth policy to a new baby-faced level.
Maresca has employed the youngest squad in the Premier League this campaign at just 23 and a half years old.
That’s positively grey-haired in comparison to rookie Walsh who will have only just received his National Insurance card last October.
The evening had a weird feel to it. One game away from a final in a competition Chelsea have never won yet the bench was far stronger than the starting XI.
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CHELSEA coasted their way into the Conference League final thanks to Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s first-half finish.
Enzo Maresca’s men had done the difficult work last week with a thumping first-leg win.
But Dewsbury-Hall gave the home fans something to cheer about with a smart finish.
Tyrique George fed the midfielder, who cut inside Djurgarden defender Miro Tenho before slotting home.
From there, Chelsea were going through the motions – and no wonder given how poor their Swedish visitors were.
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In addition to a cast member from Grange Hill on the left hand side of midfield in Walsh, 19-year-old Josh Acheampong was called up to a hugely reshuffed line up.
It’s not that Maresca disrespects the tournament, more that the level of competition Chelsea have faced in this third-tier competition has been League One at best, non-League at worst.
It’s arguable that for all the noise and bluster of the Swedish hordes who took over Stamford Bridge on every side, their team is one of the worst despite getting to the last four.
So much so that Marc Cucurella was the only player to kick off last night’s game having also started against new Premier League champions Liverpool at the weekend.
What a contrast a few days can make in football.
Maresca was clearly convinced that the tie was in the bag and had his mind on more pressing matters.
That is the task of Champions League qualification for next season so that they can wave goodbye to tinpot European competition like this.
A trip to fourth placed Newcastle on Sunday beckons and with both teams pegged level on points, it’s a far testier occasion than last night’s routine progression – albeit into a final.
Chelsea’s big guns were kept in reserve on the bench to keep legs fresh.
Cole Palmer, Enzo Fernandez, new Player of the Year Moises Caicedo and Nicolas Jackson all watching and waiting for a little run out if need be.
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At half time Maresca brought on forward Shumaira Mheuka – who was Chelsea’s youngest starter having played in Copenhagen in the round of 16.
Still only 17, he held the record for barely two months until Walsh nabbed it from him. Chelsea are boys in blue in every sense.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
