David Moyes and his West Ham United squad return to action tonight in the first of three mid-season matches in preparation for the restart of the 2022/23 season following the FIFA World Cup finals.
The Irons take on EFL League One side Cambridge United at the Abbey Stadium in a Testimonial for long-serving U’s defender Greg Taylor, the 32-year-old who is in his tenth season with the club he joined in the fifth tier in the summer of 2013.
Taylor’s big night sees Mark Bonner’s Cambridge welcome a West Ham side managed by another man who has played in defence for the U’s in Moyes, who spent two seasons with the hosts between 1983-85.
Tonight, of course, the Scot will be in the Away dugout rather than the Home dressing room, and he has selected a squad from the players not involved at the World Cup in Qatar .
Łukasz Fabiański starts in goal behind a back four of Ben Johnson, Craig Dawson, Angelo Ogbonna and Aaron Cresswell.
Flynn Downes anchors the midfield alongside his close friend Conor Coventry, with Pablo Fornals, Manuel Lanzini and Jarrod Bowen supporting Michail Antonio in attack.
The substitutes’ bench comprises goalkeepers Darren Randolph and Krisztián Hegyi, defenders Vladimír Coufal, Emerson, Will Greenidge, Levi Laing and Michael Forbes, midfielders Pierre Ekwah, Freddie Potts, George Earthy and Keenan Appiah-Forson and forwards Gianluca Scamacca, Saïd Benrahma and Kamarai Swyer.
West Ham United: Fabiański, Johnson, Dawson, Ogbonna, Cresswell ©, Downes, Coventry, Fornals, Lanzini, Bowen, Antonio
Subs: Randolph (GK), Hegyi (GK), Coufal, Emerson, Greenidge, Laing, Forbes, Ekwah, Potts, Earthy, Appiah-Forson, Benrahma, Swyer, Scamacca
Cambridge United: Mannion, Digby, Taylor ©, Smith, Dunk, Lankester, Okedina, Rossi, Janneh, Simper, Knibbs
Subs: Holden (GK), Williams, Jones, Brophy, Ironside, Tracey, Worman, Jobe, McConnell, Hoddle, Scales
Referee: Neil Hair
