West Ham U23s midfielder Anthony Scully cannot wait for the start of the Premier League 2 season after spending most of last year on the sidelines.
Friday's friendly against Dagenham and Redbridge will be the Academy side's fourth pre-season outing ahead of the new campaign.
The 20-year-old midfielder has impressed in his pre-season showings so far and looks set to be a major part of the U23s squad this season.
“Personally, I’m just taking it game by game," he said. "Everybody’s aim and goal is to get into the first team so I’m just looking to play in as many games as possible, and then depending on how I’m doing see where my performances take me.
“Pre-season has been really good so far. The training has been hard but that’s only going to help us for the season.
“We are currently unbeaten in pre-season and that’s our aim to go through pre-season unbeaten so hopefully it can continue.”
Friday's annual friendly is a chance for new head coach Dmitri Halajko to see his side up against senior opposition ahead of the PL2 season.
The Dagenham game on Friday will be a good test. Every year we play them and it’s always a tough game.
Anthony Scully
“The Dagenham game on Friday will be a good test. Every year we play them and it’s always a tough game, there will be loads of fans and the atmosphere will be great, making an even better game.”
The U23’s travelled to Slovakia last week with the new management team and Scully thinks they are already having a huge impact on the squad.
“It’s been brilliant with Dmitri and Steve. We’ve worked on lots of stuff as a team already and you can see the improvements. Training has also been really enjoyable and different every day.”
After a difficult season last year, the U23s will be looking to have a much better season in their new division however the aim within the squad is not to be there for very long.
"As a team, I think our aim has to be promotion back into the top division, we have a good squad so I see no reason at all why we can’t aim for that."
Friday's friendly is taking place at the U23s' usual home ground The Chigwell Construction Stadium and kicks off at 7:30pm.
Pre-season then concludes next week with West Ham U23s travelling to Reading on Tuesday (30th July) for a behind closed doors friendly before a trip to Belgium for a prestigious friendly against RSC Anderlecht next Friday.