The Hammers development squad lost 5-3 to Bilbao Athletic tonight at the Boleyn ground in the first group game of the Premier League International Cup. West Ham got off to a poor start after a defensive mix up which allowed Jorge Luis Garcia to score for Bilbao after two minutes. On 19 minutes a cross from Lewis Page found Fanimo who beats his man and fires a vicious shot across goal, his shot is deflected to make it 1-1. Bilbao scored two more goals to make it 3-1 at half time. On 77 minutes Elliot Lee pounced on a Pask’s knock down from a Bywater’s free-kick to make it 2-3 and it it was game back on. On 91 minutes Garcia scores from a free-kick to make it 2-4 to Bilbao Athletic. In the remaining crazy 90 seconds both sides scored late on to make it 5-3, the West Ham goal from Bywater with a curling shot from the edge of the box.
West Ham United Team : Spiegel, Knoyle, Page, Whitehead, Onariase, Pask, Fanimo, Lletget, J. Brown, Lee, Parfitt-Williams
Subs: Makasi, Boness, Nasha, Bywater, Akinola, Diangana
The other groups are as follows…
Group A: Chelsea, Norwich, Porto & Borussia Monchengladbach
Group C: Leicester City, Manchester City, Benfica & Schalke
Group D: Everton, Sunderland, Celtic & Villarreal
The Hammers are in Group B alongside Athletic Bilbao, Dutch giants PSV Eindhoven (Wednesday 19th November, Boleyn Ground) and Fulham (Friday 12th December, Rush Green).