West Ham Under 23’s put in a brilliant display to beat Porto B in the Premier League International Cup on Tuesday at the Chigwell Construction Stadium.

A wonderful solo effort late on from Jahmal Hector-Ingram sealed the points for the young Hammers in a game where they saw very little of the ball.

West Ham were gunning for their first ever victory in the Premier League International Cup on Tuesday night. Porto have won this competition on two occasions.

As soon as the game kicked off it followed a very distinct pattern as Porto dominated the ball with technical midfielder Bruno Costa dictating play.

Despite their ability on the ball, the Portuguese outfit struggled to carve out any real opportunities in the first 20 minutes of play as their play in the final third was not quite incisive enough.

Joy on The Counter 

The Hammers looked dangerous on the counter attack, with Hector-Ingram and Emmanuel Longelo dropping into the spaces vacated by the Porto full backs.

It was Longelo who broke the deadlock in the 28th minute after a tremendous through ball from Alfie Lewis left him one on one with Porto’s Ricardo Silva.

The 17-year-old calmly slotted the ball through Silva’s legs and West Ham found themselves one up having had very little possession.

Trott The Saviour

It took Porto until the 45th minute for them to register their first shot on target. Some brilliant work by Fernando down the right hand side created an opening for Gleison who had nearly the whole goal to aim at.

Luckily for the Hammers, Nathan Trott shot across his line and clawed the ball away to maintain West Ham’s slender lead into half time.

Missing the Mark

As you can see Porto managed double the amount of touches in West Ham’s box (52) than their counterparts. But they weren’t as clinical as West Ham who had seven shots on target, all coming from inside the box. Just two of Porto’s shots on target came from inside the box which shows that despite dominating the play, they struggled to actually make good quality chances.

Back In it

Porto started the second half in a similar vein, passing the ball around confidently.

Brazilian left back Inacio struck a sweet shot that cannoned off the post and the warning signs were there for the East Londoners.

The left back played a key part in Porto’s equaliser in the 71st minute when his whipped cross found Gleison who guided his header into the back of the net.

The goal was nothing more than Porto deserved and at 1-1 they were clear favourites to go on and win the game.

End To End

Both sides then went on to have good chances to take the initiative.

West Ham’s Sean Adarkwa was played through on goal, but he was eventually crowded out and couldn’t get a decent sight of goal.

At the other end Trott was forced into a magnificent save after a thunderous shot from Rui Pedro looked destined to nestle in the bottom corner.

World Class Winner

But then up stepped Hector-Ingram who latched onto a long ball down the left side and meandered through three Porto defenders before shimmying past a fourth and slotting the ball in the roof of the net.

A wonderful goal from someone who had hardly had a kick before this stunning bit of play.

It turned out that this 87th minute strike was the winner as Porto could not get their second equaliser of the night.

West Ham’s first win of the group phase will be greeted with much satisfaction considering they had their backs to the wall for much of the game.

They host Derby on Saturday where they will be gunning for another victory to build on Tuesday’s epic triumph over a strong Porto B side.

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