Maiden West Ham United goals from new boy Danny Kemp and trialist Sam Ford helped the Hammers to a dramatic Barclays U18 Premier League win over Aston Villa.
Former Chelsea midfielder Kemp, who moved across London in November last year, opened the scoring with just 19 minutes remaining at Little Heath, only for Villa’s Harvey Knibbs to equalise.
However, West Ham would not be denied and trialist Sam Ford smashed a low shot into the corner in the final minute to snatch a 2-1 victory and all three points.
After last weekend’s disappointing thrashing by Reading, the Hammers made three changes to their starting eleven for the visit of Villa to Little Heath.
Sam Howes returned between the sticks in place of Rihards Matrevics, while Idris Kanu impressed on his return from injury during the second half in Berkshire last week and earned a spot in the team to replace Josh Pask.
Full-back Jake Eggleton suffered an injury last week, which opened up an opportunity for Ford to start during his trial period from Ipswich Town.
In the opening 15 minutes of the game, the Hammers were dominant as they looked to redeem themselves for the Reading defeat. Kemp’s volley was turned over the bar by Villa goalkeeper Emmanual Idem, while Declan Rice and Jahmal Hector-Ingram also went close.
It was Villa who went closest to scoring the first goal of the game, however, as Moustafa Zeidan crashed a 20-yard free-kick against the post. Just before half-time, the visitors had another chance, but Jack Coates headed wide from Zeidan’s whipped cross.
After the break, West Ham regained the ascendancy with Kanu and Hector-Ingram missing chances, with the former dragging his shot wide before seeing a shot saved and the latter being denied by Idem in two similar one-on-one situations.
West Ham’s pressure finally told on 71 minutes when, from a corner, Kemp took up a position just outside the box and buried a shot into the corner of the net after the visitors failed to clear their lines properly.
With West Ham sitting on their lead, Villa’s Alex Prosser had a goal disallowed for offside, but that let-off only lasted a few moments before Knibbs levelled from close range after the ball had bounced around in the home penalty area.
The equaliser appeared to wake the Hammers up and they went back on the front foot as the game went into added-time.
Left-back Vashon Neufville went on an attacking run into the penalty box before pulling the ball back to Ford, who fired home on his first appearance to give the Hammers the win.
The West Ham Academy now have just three Barclays U18 Premier League South fixtures remaining before the North and South leagues split into three four-team groups. There, the Northern and Southern teams will compete in mini leagues against each other to determine their final end-of-season ranking.
West Ham will host Southampton at Little Heath on Saturday 23 January (11am), before Swansea City visit the following weekend. A trip to Brighton and Hove Albion on 6 February brings the regular season to an end.
U18s: Howes, Borg, Neufville, Akinola, Rice, Carter, Scully, Kemp, Kanu (Longelo), Hector-Ingram, Ford
Subs not used: Matrevics (GK), Henry, Johnson, Coventry