Hammers score brilliant first time victory

West Ham’s under 23 scored a fabulous win last night – triumphing over holders Porto in the Premier League International Cup .

It was the team’s first ever victory in the competition and ranks as one of the side’s greatest achievements against a team that has won the competition for the last two years running.

However, the visitors were shocked as the Irons grabbed the points via goals from Manny Longelo and Jahmal Hector-Ingram.

Porto managed a second half equaliser, but Liam Manning’s lads kept up the pressure with a determined display to clinch victory through Hector-Ingram.

With three points in the bag Manning declared: “We are really delighted with how the lads applied themselves. The result was the icing on the cake for how the lads had applied themselves and the shift they’d put in, so we’re really happy with how they performed.

“Their commitment was great tonight. We spoke after our defeat to Leicester about what maximum commitment looks like and they put that into practice tonight. We gave them a game plan and at the end, the lads were flat out. The way they applied themselves was brilliant.

 

“The young lads did really well. Dan Chesters did well and Manny Longelo obviously got his goal. Keenan Appiah-Forson came on and had a positive impact and then I thought the two centre-backs as well were outstanding. Alfie Lewis did well too; they really led by example and overall we’re delighted.”

He added: “We prepared well on the opposition in terms of how they play and they’re quite a lot older than us as well. Credit goes to Steve [Potts] and Yacine [Allag, U23 Performance Analyst].

 

 

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