West Ham United U18s maintained their grip on fourth place in the U18 Premier League South with a dominant 4-1 victory over Norwich.
Going into the game at Little Heath without a number of their regular players, who travelled with the U23s squad to Middlesbrough yesterday, Kevin Keen’s side were looking to build on their first away victory of the season at Tottenham last weekend.
Such momentum was evident from the opening moments when West Ham’s new trialist scored with his first touch in a Claret and Blue shirt, sweeping in Sebastian Nebyla’s cross from the edge of the box inside two minutes.
Nebyla then continued his blistering start to the season by doubling West Ham’s lead after 19 minutes, tapping in after good work from Kamarai Simon-Swyer.
The visitors then took advantage of some momentary defensive slackness from the Hammers to pull one back, Josh Giurgi converting after 28 minutes.
West Ham’s two-goal advantage was restored within a minute of the restart, however, as Nebyla netted his fifth goal in six games with an excellent solo effort, collecting Will Greenidge’s pass and rounding the keeper before slotting home.
3-1 the score remained until half-time, from whence West Ham opted to change the pace and seek control of the game.
Their victory was sealed when their trialist rounded off the scoring – and a fine first impression in a competitive fixture – with a fantastic free-kick after 64 minutes.
After the game, Assistant Coach Mark Phillips said: “We were a little bit too open in the first half for my liking, but in the second half we really controlled it. We defended much tighter and sharper in the second period, and we ran out worthy winners in the end.
“We had a few players travelling with the U23s last night. That’s our job: to get players into the U23 set-up. It’s testament to the talent in the rest of the squad that we still had enough to perform so convincingly today.”
West Ham United U18s continue their Premier League South campaign in two weeks’ time when they travel across London to face Fulham at Motspur Park on Saturday 5 October. They'll be looking to make up ground on both their hosts and the two other sides also leading the league on 16 points: Brighton and Chelsea.
