A young West Ham United reserve side were beaten 1-0 in a specially-arranged friendly with Tottenham Hotspur at Spurs Lodge on Tuesday.
A Hammers squad including the likes of Frank Nouble, who has recently returned from a loan spell at Coca-Cola Championship title-chasers West Bromwich Albion, and fit-again Matt Fry, back after a spell out with a knee problem, ran Spurs close, only to lose out to a single goal scored by Tottenham full-back Adam Smith.
Coached by reserve-team manager Alex Dyer, West Ham worked hard on a sunny day in Chigwell, with Nouble coming close to snatching an equaliser on two occasions.
"It was a good morning's work," said Dyer. "The lads came out and started a little bit slower than Tottenham, and they scored early doors.
"After that, we got into the game and had a couple of good chances. The boys started to dominate a little bit and we passed the ball well. It was a good game, rather than being a 'friendly' with the boys just going through the motions. They worked hard.
"Jordan Spence was our captain and he was good and led by example. It was also good to see Matt come back in as it was his first game for a while.
"Frank was back and he put a good shift in up front. He had the two best chances we created and, to be honest, I would have expected him to do a bit better, but at least he was there in the place to have the opportunity to miss them, which was a good thing."
Dyer's reserves return to competitive action with a Barclays Premier Reserve League South trip to Barnet FC's Underhill Stadium to take on Arsenal next Monday evening, with kick-off at 7pm.
West Ham United reserves: Kurucz, Modelski, Spence, Fry, Brown, Wearen, Payne, Lee, Okus, Abdulla, Nouble
Subs: Loveday, Brookes, McNaughton, Barrett, Dixon