Portsmouth Under-18s 1-0 West Ham United Under-18s
West Ham United Under-18s' hopes of a first point of the new season were dashed by a late free-kick that gave the home side all three points.
The 25 August contest had looked like being a stalemate in what was a frustrating afternoon for youth academy director Tony Carr and his team, until the home side was awarded a debatable free-kick on the edge of the area. A low left-foot shot went agonisingly under the feet of the boys in the West Ham wall and into the corner of the net. In a game of few chances, it was always likely to be settled by one goal.
"It was petering out to a 0-0 draw and I think that would have been the right result. They didn't deserve to win and we didn't deserve to lose," said Carr. "It had been a pretty fair challenge on one of their boys, which to be fair on another day would have gone unnoticed, but they were awarded the free-kick and lucky for them, it went in."
He added: "It was the only decent shot they had on goal, but it wasn't a good game overall. They stuck ten behind the ball, were not attacking and adventurous, so it was hard to break that down and get our football flowing. In fact, their staff came up to me afterwards and apologised for the way they approached the game."
West Ham United: Stech, O'Neill, Blackwell, Miller, 'Gala, Harvey, Stanislas (Edgar), Lee (Kearns), Hunt, Sears, Jeffery (Fry)
Subs not used: Street, Ashman,