Keen's Confident Display

RESERVE team manager Kevin Keen was delighted with his side's 4-0 win over Ipswich, even though he thought his experienced team could have performed better.

Keen had eight players with first-team experience in his starting line-up and against a young Ipswich team the Hammers Reserves raced into a four goal lead at half-time.

But they were pegged back in the second period, leaving Kevin to feel that his team could have won by an even bigger margin.

"I was delighted with the result," he said, "but in terms of the performance I thought we could have done better with the side we had out.

"It's amazing when you look at last week when we lost 2-1 with a very young group of players but put in a really strong team performance.

"Perhaps we played better last week than we did against Ipswich, but what counted was some sharp finishing and quality in the right areas.

"It's purely that with the team we had against Ipswich you expect a little bit more.

"But that said we came away with a clean sheet, largely thanks to Shaka who had an outstanding game. I was a little disappointed but we won 4-0 and earned three very good points.

"Tony Stokes set the standard with a wonderful strike for the first goal, and his display was a real shining light in the performance along with Shaka's saves and Kyel Reid, who had some good moments in the first-half.

"It was also good to see Jeremie Aliadiere score his first goal at Upton Park and for the third and fourth goals two set-plays came off which we had worked on in training, so that was another pleasing aspect."

Kevin did explain that the match had afforded the first-team squad players a valuable chance to build-up their match fitness ahead of what is a busy schedule of games.

"It was definitely a great chance for some of the players to get some match sharpness," he said. "Most of those players have needed games and they came off afterwards saying that it was nice to get 90 minutes under their belts.

"Certainly from a fitness and match practice point of view the game was an excellent work out."

Kevin was also delighted at the performance of Shaka Hislop, who was taking his competitive bow for the Hammers in his second spell at the Club.

"Shaka was brilliant," he exclaimed. "He made some great saves and looked in really good shape."

Tony Stokes in midfield also caught the eye, not least because of a magnificent 25 yard volley that opened the scoring after six minutes.

"Tony's a really good lad," said Kevin. "He's only been playing centre midfield for six or seven months, but he's shown a nack for scoring goals and he's learning the role really well.

"He's got good touch and he spreads the play well, but as Tony is aware, there is still plenty for him to learn."