Met Police’s youth team may have celebrated their finest hour last Wednesday, but the boss was not there to see it.

The Blues’ U18s landed a dream FA Youth Cup third round trip to former Premier League side Burnley last week thanks to a dramatic penalty shoot-out triumph at League Two Yeovil Town.

But while captain Dudley Pearn and his team-mates were performing heroics at Huish Park – where they held their more illustrious hosts to a 1-1 draw after extra-time – boss Stuart Searle was literally miles away.

The 36-year-old former Met Police number one is goalkeeping coach for Chelsea Ladies and was in Germany for the team’s 2-0 Champions League defeat to Wolfsburg, while his boys were becoming the first Blues team to beat Football League opposition at any level.

“It was quite a surreal night,” said Searle, who started his career at Wimbledon.

“While Chelsea were losing 2-0, I was on the sidelines wearing my thumb print out keeping touch with the my coaching staff in Yeovil on my phone and via Twitter.

“We were in the bar after the game in Germany and everyone else was a little subdued and there I was dancing around like a lunatic.

“No team from the Ryman Youth League has reached the FA Youth Cup third round before and now there are two – Worthing and ourselves – flying the flag.”

He added: “I knew that once we beat Dulwich Hamlet in the first round, we had a chance to go further.

“Yeovil are a good side, but I knew we would go through if we could perform to our levels.

“The management team that were there told me we were the better side for 90 minutes until they scored in injury time and they only scored from one of our mistakes.

“It is a great achievement for the boys to be representing non-League football at this level.

“It will be something we can all look back on with a great deal of pride, whatever else we go on to achieve in the competition.”

Met Police head to Burnley on December 7.