Seven-up for youths at Millwall

Millwall Under-18s 3-7 West Ham United Under-18s

West Ham United Under-18s continued their rich vein of form as they chalked up another win over London rivals on Saturday 6 October.

Tony Carr's young side have now hit 17 goals in their last three matches, which includes a 6-0 victory at Cardiff, a 4-1 home win against Chelsea and another comprehensive result on their travels, this time in south London on Saturday. England Under-19 hopeful Freddie Sears was the star of the show hitting a hat-trick while Bondz 'Gala, Anthony Edgar, Jack Jeffrey and Junior Stanislas also found the target.

West Ham got off to a great start, taking an early lead through 'Gala who headed in Edgar's corner kick. Millwall equalised midway through the half but West Ham went close several times to regaining the lead, with efforts from Sears and Daniel Kearns. The Hammers were awarded a penalty just before half-time, after Sears had turned his marker and was then brought down in the box. The referee did not hesitate to point to the spot and Sears dusted himself down to convert the spot-kick and make it 2-1 at the break.

West Ham were in equally blistering form after the interval, going 5-1 up within 15 minutes of the restart. The third goal was a result of a great individual effort by Edgar, who sent a left-foot shot into the back of the net, before Jeffrey collected the ball after good work from Sears and slotted in the fourth. Sears popped up to get Hammers' fifth goal and his second of the day, before completing his hat-trick to make it 6-1.

The hosts managed to pull a second goal back, but West Ham were not finished and Stanislas - who had come on as substitute for the injured Sears in the 78th minute - wrapped up victory with the seventh. There was still time for one more strike, but it was at the other end as Millwall grabbed a third to make the final score 7-3.

A delighted Carr said: "To score seven goals away from home is a tremendous achievement and we were always in control. It was another all-round great team performance and while you don't expect every game to be as high scoring as our games have been in the last three matches, we want to keep it all going now, because we are playing really well and scoring goals from all over."

For young striker Sears, the hat-trick he pocketed against Millwall was his second in as many games - he hit three against Chelsea the week before - and has now scored 12 goals in the last six games. The only downside as that he had to go off with an injured ankle that resulted in him having to pull out of the England U-19 squad this week. "Freddie took a knock on his ankle after scoring his first goal against Millwall, he didn't want to come off, but once he had scored his hat-trick I pulled him off as he needed treatment," added Carr.

"He did join up with the England U-19's, but they sent him home on Sunday night because he isn't going to recover in time to play. It's disappointing for him, but if he stays in this rich vein of form, there will certainly be other opportunities for him. We haven't got a game this weekend coming up, so it will give us a couple of weeks to get his injury sorted out. Fred is scoring with great regularity and has stepped up to the levels I want him to be at this season and he is carrying on the good work from last year, when he was also very prolific."

West Ham United: Stech, O'Neill, Blackwell, 'Gala, Ashman, Harvey, Kearns, Lee, Sears (Stanislas 78), Jeffrey, Edgar.
Subs not used: Street, Spence, Miller