Nathan Trott has marked his return from a successful loan spell at French club Nancy with 45-minute appearances in goal in the pre-season matches at Servette and Borwham Wood.
The 23-year-old, who recently penned a new contract in east London, gained valuable experience with his year at the Ligue 2 side, playing 21 times in all competitions to add to 26 senior run-outs from a previous loan spell at AFC Wimbledon.
Having come back to Rush Green this summer to continue his tutelage under Hammers goalkeeper coach Xavi Valero, Trott is excited for the challenge ahead as he trains alongside his senior colleagues in Łukasz Fabiański, Alphonse Areola and Darren Randolph.
And having enjoyed productive training camps in St Andrews and Èvian-les-Bains, he admitted it was nice to get back out on the pitch as his team drew 1-1 at Meadow Park on Tuesday.
It felt good to get some minutes on the pitch.
It's been a good couple weeks of training, I think we've all been working hard the last two weeks and at the end it's down to matches and how you feel during a game. I think you can see in the last couple of games we've been playing really well so i'm very happy to just get some minutes out there and enjoy my football.
There were a couple of saves to make at the end and I was pleased to make them.
Sometimes it's difficult to come in for the second half, especially when coming off the bench, but I felt sharp and I try to do as much as I can to help the team.
The manager split the squad across the two games on Tuesday and that helped everyone get more playing time.
It's a big squad together as we've got a lot of young players and seniors coming back as well so it makes sense for everyone to rotate to get minutes in.
Then it's easier for the manager and coaching staff to see who's doing well and to see how we've been working hard for the last two weeks and how we show up in the games.
It's great for the young players to be involved in these games.
A lot of us come from the same point at West Ham. We all grew up here, coming out to play in these games in pre-season with some first team players. That's what we all wanted and it's an opportunity that we all look forward to.
it's good to see everyone out here, we saw Aji and Divin getting the goals in the last game in Switzerland, so it's good to see things like that.
Last season was a great experience for me getting more game in.
Now it's given me a big boost of energy being back here with everyone. This is where i want to be at the end of the day so for the time that i'm here for the moment, whether I'm here or i go on loan again, I'm going to work hard in the games and grasp the opportunities i've been given and show the manager what i can do.
We’ve got quite a few games this pre-season so it's important that we get back to the training ground and continue to work hard and hopefully get more results leading up to the season.
