'A good night's work'

Ian Hendon was full of praise for his young defenders after a battling performance earned a deserved 2-0 win at Whyteleafe on Tuesday night.

The development squad coach took his team round the M25 to play the east Surrey club, where Joint-Chairman David Gold is patron, and was impressed with their attitude. The Hammers XI included Guy Demel who got another 45 minutes under his belt and is pushing for a place in this weekend's senior squad heading to Coventry City.

Dominic Vose and Olly Lee scored the goals for the youngsters in front of the watching assistant manager Neil McDonald, but Hendon was particularly pleased with the work ethic and defensive strength in his team. "It was a good night's work," the coach told West Ham TV.

"It was a difficult pitch and surroundings for the players to come and play. They dealt with that very well. On the whole it was a very pleasing performance. Their keeper got man of the match which shows how dominant we were. We went about the match in the right way.

"Sometimes these games [at non-league grounds] are difficult to come and play. They kept going and applied themselves properly. Fair play to Whyteleafe, they had a good go themselves. They made it difficult at times.

"It could have been four or five maybe more. It wasn't to be but it kept the game lively and we had to keep going to the end before we scored late on to kill the game."