Kaelan Casey admitted that West Ham United U21s' home defeat to Blackburn Rovers was a missed opportunity to put more points on the board and pull away from the battle against the drop in Premier League 2 Divison 1.
The young Hammers were beaten 3-1 at Rush Green Stadium on Saturday afternoon after first half mistakes saw the visitors take a commanding lead. Georgie Gent’s goal was followed by an unfortunate own goal by Keenan Appiah-Forson as the Hammers fell two goals behind before the interval.
Divin Mubama halved the deficit with ten minutes remaining, but Sam Burns’ late strike secured all three points for the visitors.
Casey admitted that the Hammers were not at their best in the disappointing defeat.
“Everyone is down in the dressing room,” the 18-year-old told whufc.com. “It was a game that we wanted to win and we all feel that we could have come away with three points but a couple of key moments let us down.
“I can’t fault the effort of anyone. We all gave it absolutely everything today but it wasn’t our day.”
After falling two goals behind in the first half, Casey took some in a more positive second half performance.
“It was always going to be tough to get back into it in the second half,” Casey reflected. “I think we were a little bit down at half-time, but Robbo got us up for it. We pushed to get back into the game and we played really well at times.
“We managed to get one goal back but in pushing to equalise we left ourselves exposed and the third goal killed the game off unfortunately. We just have to put today down as an off day and we’ll pick ourselves up and go again.”
Despite a disappointing defeat with the U21s, Casey is eagerly awaiting Thursday’s FA Youth Cup semi-final at London Stadium.
The centre back is hoping to finish the season strongly with both Kevin Keen's young team and the development side.
“I’m really looking forward to Thursday’s semi-final, especially as it’s going to be played at London Stadium. Hopefully it will be a good day for us and we will give it everything to advance to the final.
“We’re all ready for a big end to the season. It’s been a good season for all of us and I have particularly enjoyed the FA Youth Cup with the U18s. It’s a big couple of months coming up with the U21s as well though, so I will keep focused and I’ll keep trying to put in performances.”
