Impressive West Ham beat Manchester City despite being relegated

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Ole Saue reports on a shock result…

West Ham U21s were already relegated before this match had even kicked off – but still managed to beat title-chasing Manchester City 2-1 at The Boleyn Ground in a hard-fought game, thanks to a first-half header from Dan Potts and an own goal by Adam Drury in the second half.

A late consolation goal through Oliver Ntcham wasn’t enough for City to get back into it.

Both teams started the first half brightly and it was the away side that had the first chance on goal through Jose Pozo but his low shot from just outside the box was saved by goalkeeper Raphael Spiegel.

Three minutes later, Potts scored his first goal of the season when he headed home a Djair Parfitt-Williams cross from the right to give Steve Potts’ side the lead.

Halfway through the first half, Jorge Intima picked up a poor West Ham clearance, but his effort from inside the box was blocked on the line by skipper Lewis Page. Just before the break, Ntcham stretched Spiegel with a fierce strike but it brought an equally fierce save.

The Blues started the second half well and had most of the ball but were denied by what was proving to be a solid West Ham defence. Potts almost scored his second goal of the evening when he hit the crossbar with a header from 10 yards out. Minutes later, City defender Drury turned a Jordan Brown cross into his own net to make it 2-0 to the Hammers.

With 15 minutes to go, the visitors were granted a glimmer of hope as Ntcham broke through the Hammers defence and halved the deficit with a well-controlled finish from inside the box.

In the dying minutes of the game, Reece Brown was put through on goal and was one-on-one with City keeper Angus Gunn, but his shot was saved acrobatically by the City stopper drawing applauds from both benches and players on the pitch as the referee blew his whistle for one last time as the game came to an end.

West Ham currently sit bottom in the U21 Premier League, while City are still five points clear of local rivals Manchester United but have played a game more.

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