Chelsea got their Under-18 pre-season slate of fixtures underway on a sweltering hot Saturday afternoon with a 2-0 win over Brighton & Hove Albion.
Goals from Nias Butungu and Charly Musonda saw the Blues triumph, although the game was effectively a training session at this stage of the summer and featured playing time for some twenty or so youngsters, with Under-16s and trialists amongst them.
Reece Mitchell played for the first time since breaking his leg in an FA Youth Cup match against Derby County last season whilst Anjur Osmanovic featured after having spent the second half of 2012-13 on loan at former club Lärje-Angered in Sweden.
Both teams sought to use as many players as possible in the heat and in order to get some pitch minutes into their legs and so the game was never really played at a great pace. A goalless first half featured Chelsea coming close on a number of occasions and but for some fine goalkeeping they would have been ahead, but settled the affair with two strikes midway through the second period.
The group now heads for the familiar climbs of Austria for a week as they step up their schedule for the new season. They return to friendly action at Cobham in a fortnight when Stevenage are the visitors.
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