Tony Carr has lavished praise on West Ham United's Academy coach driver Mick Straker following Saturday morning's drama on the M25.
Straker showed admirable reactions to keep control of the vehicle when an air pipe burst and the brakes locked as the Under-18s made their way to take on Chelsea.
Thankfully, the motorway was quiet at the time and the driver was able to keep the coach away from danger, save for a minor impact with a crash barrier.
After a short wait on the hard shoulder, the Hammers were collected by a minibus provided by Chelsea before continuing their journey to Cobham for the FA Premier Academy League fixture.
Despite their dramatic journey and falling 4-1 down just a minute after half-time, West Ham produced a fine display in going down to a narrow 4-3 defeat. Cristian Montano netted twice and Callum McNaughton his first goal in two years for Carr's side.
The Academy Director was immensely proud of everyone involved in Saturday's game.
"We had a difficult day all-round. We were involved in an incident on the M25 and it could have been a lot more dangerous than it actually turned out to be. We have to be thankful that we were all wearing seatbelts and all came out uninjured.
"It was one of those things that galvanised us and brought everyone together. It was an experience they had together and brought them closer. Other than standing on the hard shoulder for 45 minutes in the freezing cold, it was not too bad for them.
"All credit must go to our driver, Mick, who kept excellent control of the coach when the air pipe blew and the brakes locked up. It could have been all so different and we all feel fortunate to have come out unscathed.
"It was nice that the new vice-chairman, Karren Brady, rang us as soon as she heard about the incident to check that everyone was OK. In all the years I have been travelling on coaches, I've had the odd one break down, but nothing like this."
Following their eventful journey to Surrey, Carr's team understandably took some time to settle, only to produce a stirring second-half comeback that so nearly saw them earn a deserved point.
"All credit to Chelsea, who sent a minibus to pick us up, and we kicked-off half-an-hour later. We started the game a little bit edgy, as you might expect, and Chelsea took the lead early on.
"We managed to equalise and I thought that would settle us down, but it didn't as we conceded from a corner within three minutes. A bit of loose marking in the box allowed him to score, and he duly completed his hat-trick a minute before half-time.
"We had a mountain to climb at half-time, which then became even steeper when a goalkeeping error from Sam Cowler allowed the ball to slip through his fingers and gift them a fourth goal.
"From that point onwards, I thought the team might feel sorry for themselves and collapse and concede more goals, but all credit to them. They came back to 4-3 and the last 20 minutes we took the game to Chelsea but just didn't quite have the quality to create an equaliser."
Among those individuals to do well on a day full of impressive performances were schoolboys Dominic Vose, Blair Turgott and Robert Hall. The trio were given a chance to shine after Nicky Barrett and Ahmed Abdulla were rested after the midweek FA Youth Cup fourth-round victory over Queens Park Rangers.
"We had three schoolboys in the team and a special mention for them as they played very well. Dominic and Blair had outstanding games in the midfield, with Dominic getting all three assists, so there were some real plus points from a day that had started very differently."
The U18s return to action next Saturday, when Charlton Athletic are the visitors to Little Heath for an 11am kick-off.