- West Ham United U18s thrashed Fulham 5-1 on Saturday.
- Jahmal Hector-Ingram scored a hat-trick, with Anthony Scully and Dan Kemp also on target
- Assistant manager Mark Phillips praised the team’s performance for the whole match.
West Ham United cemented their place among the early U18 Premier League South favourites with a comprehensive victory over Fulham on Saturday.
The young Hammers ran out 5-1 winners over their London rivals in an action-packed contest at Motspur Park.
Jahmal Hector-Ingram continued his impressive start to the season with a hat-trick and Anthony Scully and Dan Kemp, with a penalty, also contributed to the scoring.
The result leaves the Hammers second in the table, level on points with leaders Arsenal, as they prepare to face Brighton & Hove Albion next weekend.
“The most important thing (against Fulham) was the way we played. It’s our best performance for a long, long time,” said U18s assistant manager Mark Phillips.
“Fulham will beat a lot of teams in this league because they’re a good side. But to be 4-0 up at half-time and in control of the match throughout was very pleasing.”
They bounced back in emphatic style on Saturday and Phillips picked out England U17 international Hector-Ingram’s performance as the driving force behind the triumph.
“Jahmal had an excellent game, scoring a perfect hat-trick with his right foot, left foot and head and he got brought down for two penalties,” he added.
“If you do all that in a game, it’s going to be labelled as an exceptional performance and he had one of those.
“It was a fantastic team performance though. Alfie Lewis and Conor Coventry in midfield controlled the match and made a large number of passes. Their shape in the centre was fantastic.”
Phillips was also delighted with the way the U18s produced a rounded display for the full 90 minutes in west London.
Manager Potts had urged his players before the weekend to perform well for the full match in the hope of earning better results.
“It’s a great start because we’ve had some tough matches. We played Tottenham at home, Reading away and they’ve been doing really well recently.
“Up until this weekend, we’ve sort of played for 45 minutes without putting in a full 90 minutes. We’ve had some good halves but then dropped away or we’ve started poorly then had a good half. This week we played really well for 90 minutes and that was the difference.”
West Ham United: Matrevics; Johnson, Eggleton, Wells, Hannam, Coventry, Lewis, Powell (Henry 61), Kemp (Ngakia 86), Hector-Ingram, Scully
Subs not used: Hamilton, Constantinou