Will Greenidge believes West Ham United U21s can take a significant number of positives from their 2022/23 Papa Johns Trophy campaign.
The Irons secured a terrific 2-1 win away to Cheltenham Town in their final group stage contest on Tuesday, coming back from a goal down thanks to Greenidge’s first-half finish and Freddie Potts’ strike.
Despite two wins from the group stages, against The Robins and Walsall, the development side are out of the competition on goal difference. While Greenidge and his teammates are disappointed, a lot of heart can be taken from the performances.
“It’s a bittersweet moment for us,” Greenidge told whufc.com. “It’s a really good win against a league team, which we want to celebrate. We got the win and we hoped that would be enough to get us through the knock-out stages, but unfortunately it wasn’t.
“Regardless, we can be proud of what we did against Cheltenham Town. We’ve had a good group stage and we can take so many positives from that.”
Greenidge showed the composure of an experienced striker when he received the through-ball from Pierre Ekwah on 34 minutes, coolly slotting a left-footed effort into the bottom corner.
“I get some stick from the lads in training because I always seem to get goals in training but, when it comes to games, it hasn’t been happening for me!” The defender laughed. “I had a fair few chances against Blackburn Rovers at the weekend but couldn’t score so now, if anyone asks, I can say I was warming up for Cheltenham.
“I knew I needed to add goals to my game this season. I’ve moved from playing more as a full-back than a centre-back and I’ve got a couple of assists. It was great to get the goal and hopefully it continues for me.”
The win over Cheltenham comes after a number of good performances throughout October for the U21s, and Greenidge is delighted the side are starting to get the results they deserve for their efforts.
After a tricky start to the campaign, the full-back is expecting the Hammers to find even more wins in the coming weeks.
He added: “When the schedule came through for October, we knew it was going to be a hard month against some really good teams. We’ve put in some good performances and maybe we’ve not got the results we feel like we’ve deserved in every game. But we’ve been turning up against the league teams and it was another professional performance against Cheltenham.
“We always know we’re going to be in games. It doesn’t matter too much if we go behind because we know that if we stick to the game plan, we can still get the result. That’s credit to the group and how well we’ve been performing.
“This team is only going one way now. We’ve been really good in the first two thirds this season, on the whole, and maybe it’s just been the last third that has let us down a bit. The more we’re playing together though, we’re getting some consistency and I think we’re seeing that in the last few games.”
