A second half brace from Swedish striker Muamer Tankovic secured Fulham's U18 Academy team a 2-1 victory over Chelsea FC at the Training Ground on Tuesday afternoon.
Having netted two goals as a second half substitute in Fulham's 5-1 FA Youth Cup victory over Peterborough last week, Tankovic took his tally to four goals in two appearances against the Blues.
Tuesday's victory fired Fulham back to the top of the Premier Academy League table and Academy Manager Kit Symons was delighted with both the result and performance.
“I built the game up because it was against our local rivals and I’m delighted with the result,” said Symons on Tuesday afternoon. ”It was a very good, professional performance.
“We spoke about their [Chelsea] shape, because they’ve got good movement and rotation, and how we were going to stop that. The boys took on board the information we gave them and put it into practice which was very pleasing.”
Despite being short on numbers on Tuesday Symons highlighted the quality of players within his squad, with Tankovic almost grabbing the match ball after striking the post in the dying seconds of the game.
“We haven’t got big numbers," Symons told fulhamfc.com. "We had two U15 players as substitutes today plus a couple of injuries from the Youth Cup game.
"Tankovic started today and scored a brace after coming on last week in the FA Youth Cup and punishing Peterborough with a couple of goals.
“Although we’re light on numbers I’m really pleased with the quality and I’m delighted with the group we’ve got.”
After reaching the Academy League Final last season, these are exciting times at Fulham's Academy and Symons is looking for more of his scholars to follow in the footsteps of Kerim Frei and Matthew Briggs in reaching the First Team.
“I don’t look at the League table too much until the end of April but we must keep doing the right things every week," said Symons. "If they keep performing like they did on Tuesday and listening to the information they’re given, then we’ll do okay and hopefully get more boys through to the First Team."
There was no let up for Symons after beating Chelsea on Tuesday afternoon, with the former Fulham favourite heading to Swindon to cast an eye over Fulham’s next opponents in the FA Youth Cup.
“It’s Swindon versus Manchester City tonight in the Youth Cup tonight and we’ll play the winners of that match in the Fifth Round," Symons explained. “We’ll look at both teams and do reports and see where we go from there.”
Tankovic at the Double: