Preview | U21s continue PL2 campaign at Reading

Reading U21s v West Ham United U21s
Premier League 2, Select Car Leasing Stadium, Monday 24 February 2025, 7pm GMT 

West Ham United U21s travel to the Select Car Leasing Stadium on Monday evening to face last season’s Premier League 2 semi-finalists Reading.

Mark Robson’s U21s come into this one in a rich vein of form having won every league game in 2025, a run which has seen them climb the standings from 13th up to third with two games in hand on the two teams above them.

Although it’s the second time the young Hammers will be playing at the Select Car Leasing Stadium this season, having already faced Reading’s first team in the EFL Trophy, this will be the first meeting between the two development sides in over five years. The last encounter came when both clubs competed in Division 2, before the introduction of the current single-league format.

Tickets...

Only the West Lower Stand will be open for all supporters for this fixture. Tickets can be booked online at ticketing.readingfc.co.uk and are priced as follows:

How To Follow...

The game will be blogged live, while a live stream of the fixture will be available exclusively across the Club’s website and app.

A match report, highlights and reaction will also follow the full-time whistle.

Premier League 2 Explained…

To minimise the impact of relegation on future groups of U21 players, the Premier League introduced a new format to its development phase competition in 2023/24.

Replacing the two-division system, the 26 Category One academies now compete in a single tier with 20 regular season fixtures before the top 16 seeded teams advance to single-elimination play-offs.

Regular season fixtures are determined by a draw made according to clubs’ performances over the last three seasons. Each team plays 20 different opponents before the play-offs in May, where they will be drawn against each other based on league positions, with the higher seeded team playing at home. The top 12 are also rewarded with a place in the following season’s Premier League International Cup competition.

Opposition...  

Although last season’s Premier League 2 semi-finalists Reading find themselves outside the play-off places, their academy players have been shining elsewhere. Out of the 24 EFL League One clubs, only Peterborough have named a younger average starting XI than Reading, largely due to their high usage of homegrown players.

In fact, West Ham United U21s will already be familiar with some of their rising talents, having faced Reading’s first team in the EFL Trophy earlier this season. Conniah Boyce-Clarke, Abraham Kanu, Shay Spencer, Emmanuel Osho, Adrian Akande, Tyler Sackey and Ashqar Ahmed are just a number of the Reading academy players who were part of the squad that faced our U21s in an early season EFL Trophy encounter at the Select Car Leasing Stadium.

The U18s have also been carrying the flag for the Royals, having reached the last four of the Premier League Cup, alongside our young Hammers.

With the first team already having played against Birmingham City on Saturday afternoon, Monday evening’s development fixture will be an opportunity for the younger members of their squad to top up minutes as the U21s look to make it three wins in a row in Premier League 2, putting themselves back in play-off contention.

How Things Stand In Premier League 2...

West Ham United U21s have been in excellent form lately, winning eight of their last nine fixtures in all competitions, including five league victories in a row.

The young Hammers are well placed in the play-off spots, with ten wins from 14 matches, and are ten points behind leaders Manchester City having played two games fewer.