West Ham United U23s will have renewed determination on their side against Aston Villa U23s on Friday evening, according to Lead Coach Dmitri Halajko.
The development squad exited the Leasing.com Trophy group stages in their previous outing at Exeter City last week, falling to a late 3-1 defeat at St James Park.
In truth, the young Hammers were largely second best throughout the match, a display which stood in stark contrast to their mostly dominant Premier League 2 Division 2 showings so far this season.
Following the visit of Villa to the Chigwell Construction Stadium on Friday evening, the U23s will have played every other side in their league once – and, as it stands, they have only failed to beat second-placed Manchester United at Old Trafford out of ten league fixtures.
Halajko is therefore backing his squad to bounce back from the disappointment of Exeter – and indeed channel it to their advantage.
“If they then kick on from that game, because they’ve learned the lessons that they learned there, then it will have been really worthwhile,” Halajko said.
“We’ve been strong in the league and a little bit inconsistent in the cups – that would probably be our overall picture of how results have gone this season. In the league we’ve got it right, but in some of the cup games it hasn’t quite fallen for us. Overall, however, we’re pretty happy with our progress.”
Every week and every day, we’ve got to work harder and harder and harder and keep trying to get better and better as a team
Dmitri Halajko
Aston Villa’s U23 side are managed by the club’s long-serving former right-back Mark Delaney, who joined the club in 1999 and has been coaching with the Villans’ youth set-up since his retirement from playing in 2007.
The Midlands side have experienced an inconsistent first half of their Premier League 2 Division 2 campaign, but sit in sixth place – just a point outside of play-off contention.
Halajko believes that the Hammers’ thoughts as the season progresses must continue to be on their endeavour and self-development.
“We need to still get better – there’s a lot of work for us still to do,” he said.
“We’re quite pleased about the way we’re trying to play our football, the style we’re trying to play in and what it is we’re trying to do here, so we’re happy our intent’s right.
“Every week and every day, we’ve got to work harder and harder and harder and keep trying to get better and better as a team.”
Kick-off at the Chigwell Construction Stadium on Friday evening is at 7pm.
