Jack Collison's first-half strike
was enough for West Ham United's Under-18s to take all three
points against London rivals Chelsea at Little Heath on
Saturday.
Collison struck the winner after half an hour in a match that
the Hammers totally dominated and should have won by a bigger
margin after creating several chances throughout.
Youth Academy boss Tony Carr had admitted before the game that a
win against the Blues would further cement West Ham's second
place and keep Chelsea behind them in third spot.
He said afterwards: "Arsenal are very much in the driving seat
at the top of the league, but we will continue to chase and get as
many winning results as we can. The most likely outcome is for us
and other teams to be vying for the second place, so this result is
important as it was against a good Chelsea side.
"The only downside was that we wasted a lot of chances, I
don't think Chelsea could have complained if the scoreline had
been 3-0 or 4-0. Being 1-0 up meant we were on edge because the
other side can always nick something, so we didn't make things
easy for ourselves. But I was pleased with the way we
performed."
Hammers started off strongly and had a couple of chances to go
ahead, but the goal that would turn out to be the winner came just
10 minutes before the break, when Collison cut inside from the
right and then sent a low left-foot shot through a crowd of players
and into the net.
In the second half, it seemed that it was only a matter of time
before Hammers would score again, as Collison, unlucky not to have
had a hat-trick, went close again to finding the net. James Tomkins
and Jordan Spence also had opportunities.
However, Hammers' dominance in all other areas, especially in
defence, meant that Collison's strike was enough and puts
Carr's side in a good position ahead of another London derby on
Saturday, this time at Millwall.
Carr said: "I was pleased with our overall performance and
thought we defended excellently at times. The only criticism was
that we didn't take all our chances and that's something I
said to the boys about afterwards, but we will keep improving on
that.
"It was the third match back for James Tomkins after his
three-month injury lay-off, he is looking strong and back to full
fitness and all round, the boys are in good form.
"Millwall is always a tough place to go at any level. They
have just had a great run in the FA Youth Cup, only knocked out in
the last 16, but we have to stand up to them and go again after
this performance."
Hammers: Blackmore, O'Neill, Fitzgerald, Ngala, Tomkins,
Spence, Stanislas, Collison, Jeffery, Hales, Sears. Subs:
Blackwell, Miller, Lee
by Laura Burkin