The young Hammers were left disappointed as they succumbed to a 3-0 loss to Peterborough United at the Weston Homes Stadium last night. This loss saw them crash out of the Papa John’s Trophy competition in the second round.
Dmitri Halajko put out a strong side against Peterborough, starting senior player Andriy Yarmolenko. After making five appearances in the PL this season, Yarmolenko started for the development squad to give them an extra senior face against professional opposition.
A Big Opportunity
The Hammers were looking to make club history, as it was only the second time the youth team made it this far into the competition since the 2016/17 season.
Twenty-one minutes into the game Emmanuel Longelo weighed a nicely timed through ball to Yarmolenko, leaving him one-on-one with the keeper at an acute angle. He tried to cheekily roll the ball between the keepers’ legs, but ultimately failed, as the ball ricocheted off the inside the keeper’s foot, resulting in the ball hitting the side netting for a corner.
Less than two minutes later, Oladapo Afoloyan glided through a number of defenders, skipping his marker to the edge of the box, striking a low finish towards the bottom corner unfortunately for the young striker, a Peterborough defender blocked the attempt.
The boys in claret and blue were really starting to find their rhythm with some fast-paced football towards the end of the half. With a last effort before half time, Afolayan was second-best to meeting the ball after Longelo’s whipped cross into the box.
Second Half Capitulation
Eleven minutes into the second half, the Hammers went one-nil down following a brilliant, precise ball finding Idris Kanu on the right flank, with which he proceeded to cross across goal – finding Mohamed Eisa who comfortably finished.
Twenty minutes later, Peterborough doubled their lead with a strike from Ethan Hamilton deflecting into the path of Eisa, who then cut back to an open Serhat Tasdemir waiting to tap home into an empty net.
With seven minutes left in the match, Mo Eisa burst the young Hammers bubbles, scoring his second goal of the night taking the score up to three goals to nil. At this point, the game was out of the Irons’ reach as their professional opposition showed their calibre.
Moving Forward
The young Hammers can use this as a learning experience playing against a senior physical men’s team. Halajko later said:
“It’s a great competition from our point of view. Development-wise, for our young players, it does more than any other game of football we can play at our level, so we love the competition, and we love being part of it.”
The West Ham 23s now turn their attention back to the Premier League 2, as they travel north at the weekend to face Everton. Following their fantastic 2-0 win against Manchester United, the Hammers will be hoping to pick up another three points to help turn their season around.
