A trio of goals saw West Ham United's Under-18's win through 3-0 against Bristol City at the weekend.
Freddie Sears, James Tomkins and Joe Widdowson were all on the scoresheet as Tony Carr's side extended their unbeaten run to six games.
Hammers took the lead on the half hour mark, showing great initiative to capitalise on a mistake in the City defence. Sears disposed of his marker and from a wide angle, slid the ball into the back of the net.
As City upped their play in an attempt to get back on level terms, West Ham defended strongly and went into the break with the 1-0 lead.
A steady performance in the second half saw Hammers grow in their dominance of the game and on 70 minutes they got a deserved second goal.
The ball was swung in from a corner kick and cleared off the line, but it came out to Tomkins who headed it back in and past the keeper to make it 2-0.
West Ham wrapped up victory in the 85th minute, when substitute Widdowson beat the off-side trap and slid the ball under the advancing keeper for the third goal.
Academy director Tony Carr was delighted with the team's performance. He said: "It was a very good win for us because, although we won well, it got a bit tight at times and I thought the boys showed a lot of maturity and good play to make sure we didn't make any mistakes that would let City back in.
"We managed to capitalise on their mistakes for two of the goals, but it was important we stayed strong at the back ourselves."
He added: "We have always looked like scoring in nearly all our games this year, but it has been equally good to defend as well as we have done.
"This is the sort of consistency we have pretty much shown all season and we must continue that for the last six weeks.
"We're sitting good in second place and while Arsenal are still some points ahead, the carrot if you like and the motivation for the boys is to keep pushing on, getting the results and making sure the heat is on Arsenal."
by Laura Burkin
Hammers: Blackmore, Miller, Blackwell, N'Gala, Tomkins,
Hales, Stanislas (Lee), Spence, Jeffery (Harvey 65), Sears,
Fitzgerald (Widdowson 60)