Ajibola Alese reckons the Irons under 23s were well worth a 1-1 draw with Arsenal on Friday evening.

The development squad skipper saw his team take a lead when Keenan Forson pounced on a loose back-pass in the Arsenal defence and slotted home from a tight angle in the ninth minute.

Unfortunately for West Ham Khayon Edwards slotted home a loose ball from close range for Arsenal with five minutes of the game to go.

Alese – who has been featuring regularly in the Hammers first team squad – is unlikely to be involved against Leeds tomorrow(Sun) as he is heading for a Premier League Cup match at Exeter on Tuesday.

On the one occasion we have seen him he looked a serious prospect in the game against Dinamo Zagreb but right now he has led to Hammers youngsters  to the top of Premier League 2 Division One.

The lads were in decent form against the Gooners and that they should be the more disappointed of the two sides speaks for their hopes this term.

Alese said: “I think they dominated at times and we dominated at times. They had a few chances and we had a few chances. 

“I think a draw’s probably about fair, but if had gone either way, you could probably look at the game and say either team could’ve taken it. 

“It’s another point. We’re still unbeaten on this little run of eight matches, and we’re still unbeaten this year, so we just need to look forward to our next game and try and give the opposition fewer chances and try and take more of our own. 

“We know that when you score two or three goals, or you keep a clean sheet, you should expect to win a game. We achieved neither  so if we can look to achieve those going forwards, we’ll be in a better place.”

Alese was happy to play his part in maintaining the Hammers’ parity, with Arsenal typically enjoy long stretches of possession.

He added: “Obviously, we’d prefer to dominate the ball and dictate the game, but at times you have to just defend, which we did well .”

Although it was not their strongest performance of the campaign, Alese felt that, with a bit more luck, three points could have been claimed in North London.

“We’ve done really well this season – we’ve won eleven out of 16 games – so we go into every game trying to get the win,” the captain confirmed. 

“Now, we need to brush off tonight, look over the game over the weekend, and put it right on Tuesday against Exeter in the Premier League Cup.”