West Ham’s youthful XI grabbed a convincing win against Billericay Town yesterday. Despite missing some big players, there was a lot of good football on show.
It’s pre-season for all parts of West Ham teams, and that includes the youth sides as well. So whilst the first team were playing in the betway cup, the younger players were on show closer to home in Billericay, where they took on the National South side.
With a mix of last years U23 players and U18 sides in the team, they controlled the game for most throughout, despite a nervy opening which was delayed by 15 minutes because of heavy traffic around the area.
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Second Half Push
After a goalless first half in which the young Hammers came close but did not punish, the National South side seemed to lack some of the intensity they had previously fought with. Jahmal Hector-Ingram opened the scoring two minutes into the second half, with a fine finish from 12 yards after some good work from the rest of the side.
From there, after a brief push back by the hosts, the youngsters took control of the game and put it beyond reach. Ardakwa, a young striker who was born in October 2000 (yes it’s happening), came on in the 64th minute, and picked up his first goal only a minute later thanks to some unselfish wing-play from the highly rated Nathan Holland, placing the ball calmly into an empty net.
He added his second goal, and the Hammers’ third, as Billericay began to to suffer from lapses in concentration at the back. Sweeping home proficiently, his hope would have been to go on and claim his hattrick, however it was 20 year old winger Joe Powell who converted a late penalty to seal a 4-0 win for the Premier League’s young representatives.
As the fabled ‘academy of football’ West Ham will hope these players will continue to improve, and move into the first team in a season or two. With players like Nathan Holland and Reece Oxford being involved in these games, the quality of these games have improved massively over the last few years.