Gilmour reveals why he was ‘raging’ after his Chelsea debut

Billy Gilmour has revealed that he was “raging” after his Chelsea debut against Sheffield United last year, having been unable to inspire the team to victory at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea were six minutes away from a 2-1 victory over the Blades on August 31 thanks to a first-half brace from Tammy Abraham, before Frank Lampard decided to hand Gilmour his maiden senior appearance for the club.

Sheffield United ended up snatching a deserved point when Kurt Zouma put through his own net in the 89th minute, completing a comeback which began when Callum Robinson netted just after half-time.

Lampard was criticised for bringing on Gilmour instead of an extra defender after the final whistle, as Chelsea dropped another valuable two points to continue their slow start to the 2019-20 campaign.

The 18-year-old playmaker says he was “gutted” by the final result, and that he was offered some words of wisdom by his manager after a frustrating baptism of fire.

“When the game finished I remember walking back to the changing room and I was raging,” Gilmour told Chelsea’s official website. “I was gutted at myself just because of the score.

“The gaffer texted me later saying ‘these are the moments I want you to remember. When you’re training hard, that’s what you need to bring into the games when people aren’t playing well. You need to take the good and the bad together.’

“It was a tough game. Sheffield United worked really hard. I was obviously happy that I’d made my debut but mostly gutted. My family came down to watch and they kept telling me to cheer up. They wanted to take pictures afterwards but I wasn’t really smiling because I was in a bad mood!”

Gilmour has since managed to put the disappointment of his debut behind him, and received widespread praise for his performances in an FA Cup win over Liverpool and a Premier League victory against Everton earlier this year.

The Scottish starlet went on to express his gratitude towards Lampard for “trusting” in his abilities, having initially been convinced that he was going to be sent out on loan in the January transfer window.

“One of the best things that’s happened this season has been training with the first team because it means I have to keep my standards high and train hard every day,” Gilmour added. “Then when I go down to my own age group with the development squad, I’m continuing to keep the standards high and take that into games – we’re still unbeaten, top of the league and we’ve done so well.

“I felt I did well in pre-season but I did think when we came back that I’d be going on loan. The gaffer and Jody [Morris, Chelsea assistant manager] spoke to me and said they thought it was best for me to stay, play games with the Under-23s and train with the first team a lot more.

“I was happy with that, especially the chance to get more opportunities to train with the first team and express myself and show them what I’m about.

“At Christmas time, I was thinking I might go out on loan for the rest of the season but got told to stay again and got moved into the first-team building.

“That’s when I started to kick on from there by playing games consecutively and playing well so it’s worked out really well for me. All I can do is thank the manager for trusting in me.”