Hammers held at Brighton

The Irons  U18s were held to a 1-1 draw with Brighton & Hove Albion U18s at Little Heath on Saturday morning.

Sebastian Nebyla’s first half finish put West Ham in front, before Stefan Vukoje equalised for the visitors early in the second period.

The draw means Kevin Keen’s side continue their positive start to the season, the young Hammers sit 4th in the U18 Premier League South, with 12 points from seven games.

The Academy side had chances to snatch the points late-on but were unable to re-take the lead against the unbeaten Seagulls.

West Ham U18s Assistant coach Mark Phillips told the official site “It was a good display, we wanted to be a bit sharper in the penalty box, but we played some really good stuff and created some excellent chances. Even when Brighton were able to equalise, we had three or four good chances to win it.”

West Ham were back in league action for the first-time since a disappointing 5-1 defeat to Fulham, Phillips was glad that the U18s were able to put that game behind them.

“The most pleasing aspect of today was bouncing back from the defeat against Fulham, we spoke to boys about that a lot and we did get a good response from them.”

Next up for the West Ham U18s is a trip Tyneside to take-on Newcastle U18s in the U18 Premier League Cup.

A win in the North East would ensure that West Ham qualify for the knockout stages, having won their first group game 2-1 against Tottenham Hotspur back in September.

 

About Hugh5outhon1895

Hugh Southon is a lifelong Iron and the founding editor of ClaretandHugh. He is a national newspaper journalist of many years experience and was Bobby Moore's 'ghost' writer during the great man's lifetime. He describes ClaretandHugh as "the Hammers daily newspaper!" Follow on Twitter @hughsouthon