Great under 23s win drops Moyes a heavy hint

West Ham’s under 23s – it is time to stop calling them kids – did a great job in the west country when beating Exeter by three goals to nil to shove themselves into the last 16 of the Premier League Cup last night.

With them at the top of Premier League Two, division Two there are great things happening at our club right now – could a double be on the cards for the second string players.

At a time when we are being told that new players via the transfer window are hard to find, it seems a little surprising that one or two of our successful under 23s aren’t getting a few minutes first team duty at the very least here and there.

Sonny Perkins was thrown on towards the end against Leeds and we have also seen  under 23s skipper Ajibola Alese on the bench this season.

Harrison Ashby is another who looks well worth a few minutes not to mention Armstrong Okoflex who scored a wonder goal last night.

Among the others who may expect to get a few minutes at least are Dan Chesters, Emmanuel Longelo Thirry Nevers and Mipo Odubeko

Of course we trust David Moyes on the back of his amazing achievements since returning to the club but there’s an old saying which still rings true: “If they are good enough for the bench they are good enough to play.”

Meanwhile discussing last night’s game midfielder Kamarai Swyer said: “I think progressing is really important for us.

We obviously want to do well in the league and in the cup. We’re showing what we can do in both competitions and we’re doing well.

We’ve got qualification for the next stage out of the way now, so we can focus on other things for a moment.

“It was definitely a tough game. Especially in the first half. I think we needed to work it out and figure out how they wanted to play, but I think we definitely managed to do that.

“At half-time, the manager told us that we were doing well and it would come if we kept doing the same. We followed what he said and it did come for us, so we’re really happy.”

The 19-year-old came into the starting XI for Tuesday’s game in the No10 role and was pleased with how he grew into the match.

He added: “I think, in the first half, I was sussing the game out a bit. The first 15 or 20 minutes, I had to get a feel for it. After that though, I tried to get in-between the lines and I think I managed it.

“I wanted to create as much as possible. I feel like, on some occasions, I could have done a bit better. But I had a couple of good plays; I can remember a few I played through for Thierry Nevers, so I’m happy with how I did in my role.”