Luton Town U21s 0-2 West Ham United U21s
Mid-season friendly, Kenilworth Road, Tuesday 19 March, 1pm GMT
Assistant coach Gerard Prenderville was pleased with the performance of West Ham United U21s, who gained valuable experience from a mid-season friendly against Luton Town U21s on Tuesday afternoon.
As preparations continued for the Hammers’ next Premier League 2 outing against Derby County on 5 April - and their Premier League International Cup semi-final against PSV four days later - the U21s, alongside a host of U18s, gave a good account of themselves at Kenilworth Road, striking twice in the second half to win the match 2-0.
There were also minutes for first team goalkeeper Joseph Anang, who played the full 90 between the sticks, while George Earthy, fresh from a senior debut earlier this month, once again impressed.
Despite missing a first-half penalty, the attacking midfielder found the opener on 65 minutes with a neat finish after Sean Moore, Tyron Akpata, and Kamarai Swyer all combined to cut Luton open.
U18s attackers Elisha Sowunmi and Josh Ajala showed impressive nous late on to leave the latter with a tap-in to double West Ham’s lead.
With a host of U18s introduced throughout the final 20 minutes or so, Prenderville was pleased with the afternoon’s work from the Academy of Football…
There was a really good attitude from the players throughout the match.
A real togetherness and a real attitude of we’re going to get in, work hard, and get the job done. It is difficult to pick out any individuals because everyone did really well. Right from Joseph Anang, who came in and got some minutes through to the centre-forwards and the U18s who came on and got 15 or 20 minutes under their belts, we're really pleased with the performance.
It’s brilliant to play the game at Kenilworth Road as an experience for the younger lads too.
As staff, we want to enhance the games programme. This season, we have put a few more friendlies than usual when we don’t have games. Today was another good workout for the boys against a good Luton side.
The boys have got to get used to playing a two-plus game week whatever level they end up playing at.
The pressure of two or three game weeks always help that development, so it is really good that we’ve been able to put a programme like that together.
With Lewis Orford and Patrick Kelly away for internationals, we had two U18s boys – Ryan Battrum and Tyron Akpata – in the middle of the park, who did well.
Ryan made his first start against Fulham a couple of weeks ago and both have been in and around the U21s training group, so it is good to see them both play in a competitive game today and I thought they both did themselves justice.
We have a few more games left in Premier League 2 and we also have the Premier League International Cup game to look forward to as well.
We have a couple of days off for the boys to rest and recover and then we go again. We have some really exciting games to look forward to. The PSV game will be a great game. They won the competition last year and beat Chelsea in the last round. Of course, it is a semi-final as well so we will want to do our best in that one.
West Ham United U21s: Anang, Robinson (Medine 76), Tarima (Hargan 86), Casey © (Trialist 76), Luizao (Mayers 72), Clayton (Adiele 80), Battrum (Sowunmi 80), Akpata (Caliste 76), Moore (Ajala 72), Swyer (Rigge 72), Earthy (Fawunmi 80)
Subs not used: Knightbridge (GK)
Goals: Earthy 65, Ajala 86
Booked: Robinson
