Annotated chess game

You have two pieces out and have castled. He has two pieces out, one of which is the queen, which shouldn't be out this early. Your development is better.

Ne4 was better, when you can remove his bishop and give him doubled pawns. A minor advantage, but something to build on.

at least compel the queen to return behind

Not necessarily. With the pawn on e3, the dark square bishop is in a bit of a quandary. Maybe it can come into the game via b2? But I think an immediate d4 was preferred, opening the centre while black's king is stuck in the middle.

Instead of 7.b3?! a really strong move here was 7.d4! with the following in mind: [a] 7....Bb6 (or 7...Bb4 8.c3) 8.Nxb6 axb6 9.dxe5; or [b] 7...exd4 8.exd4 Bb6 9.Re1ch or Qe2ch with a strong initiative.

Black is messing here.

I'm inclined to agree. Having lost time with the Queen once already (two tempi, at that) Black ought to be focused upon getting his minor pieces into quick action. Now White could have seized the initiative for good and all here with 9.Ne4!

Again, Ne4 removes the bishop on c5. Alternatively, Bb2 lines up against the queen and is worth considering.

The line suggested by cdeburca is a bit more complicated than it looks, but White should come out of it well. A possible line would have been 9.Ne4! Qg6 10.Nxc5 Bh3 11.Bxf7ch! Kxf7 (If ...Qxf7 12.gxh3) 12.Nxe5ch! dxe5 13.Qf3ch Bf5 14.e4 and White wins the piece back and takes a two-pawn lead.

Aiming for 10...Bh3, maybe?

White has (had) a superb position, and a huge advantage owing to his better use of the time so far. Now was the time to launch a telling attack by 10.d4! and if 10...Bb4(!) 11.Bb2. White would have poised to iopen up the centre whilst the Black King is still stranded there.

Also playable, and more reliable, was ...d5 or ...b5.

No: this move is essential. White is actually OK here.