- West Ham United’s U18s are in action away at Norwich City on Saturday (12pm kick-off)
- Tunji Akinola believes the team are buoyed by their teammate’s performances on the international stage
- The centre-back also thinks a visit to Norwich presents a tough assignment
Tunji Akinola believes his teammate’s exploits with their international sides has given a boost to the Academy of Football dressing room.
It was a fantastic week for the young Hammers during the international break with Martin Samuelsen, who’s currently on loan at Blackburn Rovers, scoring his first goal for the Norway senior side in their 4-1 victory over San Marino on Tuesday.
Before that, Malyk Hamilton netted for Canada U18s at the weekend in their 2-2 draw with El Salvador, making it a productive international break for the Hammers global youngsters.
Akinola harbours ambitions to play for England in the not too distant future and says seeing his teammates performing well internationally makes the feat achievable.
“It’s nice to see your fellow teammates doing well on the international stage and it shows us what we can achieve as well,” said Akinola.
“It’s nice to see Martin scored for the first team in Norway, that’s a big achievement for him and hopefully something we can follow up on.
“People like Malyk, Martin and Reece [Oxford] - we compete with them week in week out, and for them to represent their country and do well, it shows the other players that’s it something we can achieve as well. It’s not unachievable.”
Akinola and the majority of his U18 teammates enjoyed a weekend off and he says everyone is raring to go on Saturday.
They visit Norwich City (12pm kick-off) and are hoping to bounce back after their defeat to Chelsea almost two weeks ago.
“Games away at Chelsea are always going to be tough games, they always have a lot of possession. It’s always gonna be about whether you can keep your defensive shape and make the most of when you do get the ball,” he continued.
“I don’t think we did enough with the ball to be honest. They even had a man sent off and we still struggled to score so it wasn’t the best of games, although they didn’t have lots of chances, we defended quite well.
“The goal they scored it wasn’t an amazing goal where you can put your hands up. It could have been easily dealt with, but we’ve spoke about that after the match and we rectified it.”
Steve Potts' men are now 4th in the U18 Premier League South and will expect a tough encounter on Saturday, with the Canaries in 5th position and just three points behind the Hammers.
Despite the loss to Chelsea, the U18s are just three points behind leaders Arsenal, and Akinola thinks they can be happy with their start to the season.
“It’s always good to be near the top throughout the season, because it shows you’re a consistent team. Our start has been good but we just need to keep playing well and get as many wins as we can finish in the top four.
“I know quite a few of Norwich’s players. I played in the PL2 match against them. Norwich away is always a tough game at U18s level because they like to play against West Ham and see it as a big game for them.
“They usually press us and make it hard for us – it should be a difficult game and hopefully we can get the three points."