West Ham United U18 1 – 2 Under 18 – Match Report

Our under-18s came from behind to beat West Ham United 2-1 in a London derby on Tuesday afternoon.

Both sides were on the scoresheet within 12 minutes at the Little Heath Sports Ground, with Chuk Obi’s strike cancelled out by an Evan Mooney volley.

After going in level at half time, we raced into the lead in the first minute of the second half through Louis Zecevic-John’s tidy back-post finish, and held off the Hammers to secure all three points.

What happened

The game started at a frantic pace, and the hosts took the lead after just six minutes when Obi latched onto Joe Scanlon’s cross to score from close range.

But we hit back five minutes later when Mooney found himself in a pocket of space at the far post and dispatched a precise volley to level the score.

A mix up between Josh Ogunnaike and Khari Ranson almost restored West Ham’s lead, but Ranson made an outstanding reflex save to stop his own defender heading past him.

We almost completed the turnaround moments later when Mooney played in Andre Harriman-Annous, but Lanre Awesu made a fantastic save in the Irons’ goal to keep his side level.

Our strong finish to the half saw us generate another chance right on half-time, but Patrick Stachow’s header was straight at Awesu.

But after being denied at the end of the first half, we wasted no time in taking the lead at the start of the second. Brando Bailey-Joseph danced away from his marker and found Harriman-Annous, who set up Zecevic-John to tuck home our second of the afternoon less than a minute after the restart.

West Ham grew into the second half after going behind, but two fantastic saves from Ranson and a last-ditch block from Stachow saw us through the wave of Hammers pressure.

After fending off the Irons’ attacks, we had two good chances to double our lead, but Mooney was denied by an excellent block and substitute Kyran Thompson fired his effort over the bar.

What’s next

Our under-18s are back in action on Saturday, May 9 with a home game against Reading.

Kick-off at the Sobha Realty Training Centre is scheduled for 11.30am (UK) in what will be our final home game of the season.

Line-ups

West Ham XI: Awesu, Peychev, Scanlon, Montague (Omotoye, 62’), Leacock, Morris, Dike (Kerr, 58’), Longman (Unwin, 70’), Obi, Beckford (Balogun, 70’), Medine

Subs: Goodger

Arsenal XI: Ranson, Zecevic-John, Ogunnaike, Owusu-Gyasi, Stachow, Ibrahim (Phillips, 59′), O’Neill (Thompson, 70′), Julienne, Mooney (Marciniak, 70′), Harriman-Annous (Hashi, 59′), Bailey-Joseph

Subs: Lupinski