First team coach Billy McKinlay believes West Ham United's 4-1 victory over Boreham Wood was a good workout for the side in their opening pre-season fixture.
The Hammers only returned back from the summer break on Thursday, yet were already back on the field on Monday evening, facing off against the National League outfit at Meadow Park.
Nine first-team players started the game in Hertfordshire, with David Moyes' bench comprising of a number of Academy of Football talents.
It would be the experienced Danny Ings that would be first to open the scoring, with the forward rifling a strike beyond the impressive Nathan Ashmore on 25 minutes.
20-year-old Kamarai Swyer would make his mark with a bullet header just before the break, which was added to by Jarrod Bowen in the second half when he prodded home from close range.
FA Youth Cup winning Captain Gideon Kodua scored the pick of the goals – taking a cross on his chest before turning and placing a shot past Ashmore and into the opposite corner.
Boreham Wood defender Femi Ilesanmi would add a consolation with moments remaining when his effort from distance beat Anang before the final whistle sounded.
McKinlay was pleased with the opening workout and is looking forward to the team now traveling out to Australia for pre-season tour of Western Australia on Tuesday.
We’re back into it really quickly
The close season always goes quickly and the boys have come back on a high. We’ve had a really good first few days and it’s great to be back ready to go again this season.
The Gaffer has had to change pre-season a little bit because of the nature of the first couple of weeks. We go to Australia tomorrow where we have two games coming up quickly, so tonight’s game is little bit earlier on in pre-season than in previous years.
Tonight was a really good workout
First of all the fitness aspect was really good, and obviously we got a decent performance and a good win too.
Fitness is the key element in the early part of pre-season, and we have to be a little bit careful because of the game being a couple of days earlier than we had it in previous seasons, which means there could be a bigger risk of injury so we have to be careful on a number of aspects.
I think physiologically it’s good for the players to get that first action over and done with, and now they can concentrate on progressing with their fitness levels.
The Academy lads had a brilliant season last year
There’s a lot of emerging talent and we have high hopes for them. They got their opportunity tonight with the international boys not available yet and they have to take those opportunities when they come around. It was good to see them in action tonight.
Being out in Australia will be a good experience
That’s what happens these days, you’re flying all around the world and it’ll be a good experience. We’ve had the game here and now we head out there for two matches and we’ll get ourselves ready to keep progressing.
