Under-18s score nine against Hammers

A ruthless second-half display saw our Under-18s extend their unbeaten start to the season with their highest-scoring win yet – a 9-0 victory at West Ham on Saturday morning.

Both sides wasted good chances during the first period of the top-of-the-table clash at Little Heath but, crucially, we edged ourselves in front with quickfire goals just before the break.

And as the rain came down after the restart, the goals rained in as we took full advantage of a stretched young Hammers outfit which included a couple of Under-16s players to hit the target time after time and notch up an emphatic win to strengthen our position at the top of the Under-18 Premier League standings and make it a very happy birthday for Under-18s Coach Matt Wells!

Winger J’Neil Bennett curled onto the crossbar early on while West Ham were left kicking themselves for not taking the lead as Veron Parkes guided wide at the back post and Sebastian Nebyla was denied by goalkeeper Josh Oluwayemi inside 20 minutes. Oluwayemi later slipped as he advanced to close down Parkes, but the forward’s chipped effort from a tight angle was cleared by defender Brooklyn Lyons-Foster.

We seemed exposed at times, but a hamstring injury to the referee on the half-hour mark allowed both sides time to regroup as the official switched places with one of his linesmen and, as the first half progressed, we started to flex our muscles going forward, Jamie Bowden’s curler being tipped over by goalkeeper Joseph Anang, who then saved one-on-one from Troy Parrott when the striker really should have scored.

The opening goal on the 45-minute mark had an element of fortune about it as Harvey White’s in-swinging cross from the right took a touch off West Ham’s Emmanuel Longelo on its way through the box and crept in at the far post, before we added a quick second three minutes into added time to really strike an important blow. Dilan Markanday threaded the ball through from outside the box, Parrott went for it, fellow forward Rodel Richards got there first and after his initial attempt was saved, he managed to steer the rebound over the keeper and into the net.

The second half was one-way traffic. After keeper Anang denied Markanday, Lyons-Foster was upended in the box by Hammers defenders Joshua Okotcha and White stepped up to score from the spot with 50 minutes played.

Richards, making his first start since his recent return from injury, curled home a beauty for 4-0 eight minutes later before Parrott got in on the act on 62 minutes, converting substitute Rayan Clarke’s cut-back from the left after a good forward pass from Markanday. Within 60 seconds we had another as Parrott picked out Bennett in space in the box, right side, and he slotted low across Anang into the far corner.

Markanday dropped deep to send Bowden scurrying through the centre and he laid the ball left for Parrott to clip over the keeper on 76 minutes, left-back Dennis Cirkin fed Markanday to double his tally after Anang saved his initial effort with his foot on 83 minutes and the hosts’ misery was complete three minutes from time when Parrott played Clarke in down the left side and he rolled into the far corner from a tight angle.

Key moment

West Ham arguably had the better chances in the first half, but it was Richards’ goal deep into added time at the end of that opening period that gave us the platform to build on after the interval. The forward was denied by the keeper initially with Parrott also going for the ball, but he guided the rebound into the net to make it 2-0 and leave the Hammers with a real uphill battle on the resumption.

“It was a bit of a false scoreline at that point – I’d have said a fairer score at half-time might have been 2-2 but it was important to go in at the break in the lead because that allowed the players to be a bit calmer and just work on the things we spoke about at half-time which, credit to them, they did and that’s probably the most pleasing thing,” said coach Matt afterwards. “I’m sounding like a grumpy old man now – I’m a bit older today – but we’ve still come away thinking that there’s a lot to improve on, even in that second half.”

Coach’s view

“It's important to remember it’s a young West Ham team. They’ve got an Under-23s game today so they’ve got some of their regular Under-18s missing – that just gives the result a bit of context,” highlighted Matt as he mulled over the game at full-time.

“In terms of the performance, I wasn’t really happy with the first half in general. After the little break in play where the referee pulled his hamstring, we were far more aggressive, had a lot more forward intent and we were better in terms of our defending because we’d lost too many one-v-one battles and actually conceded quite a few chances which West Ham, on another day, might have scored.

“But from that period onwards, we were a lot better towards the end of the first half, got the two goals and it’s clear and obvious that in the second half we delivered the performance that we asked of the players, combined with the fact that West Ham ran out of energy towards the end and that allowed us to go and score the sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth goals.”