Mikey claims Irons had taste of what Europe will offer

Michail Antonio is warming up at precisely the right time as the Hammers head towards the next friendly against newly promoted Brentford.

The new number 9 grabbed a couple of well taken goals and was brought down for a spot kick against a team he rates as a “quality”  in Glasgow Celtic.

He was man of the match for us in the game and had the home side’s supporters clearing off often well before the end of the 2-6 defeat by a very decent looking Hammers team.

No criticism intended of skipper Mark Noble – who himself was in excellent form – but had he been in a more benevolent mood given the nature of the game perhaps Mikey might have had a hat-trick had he been given the spot kick.

Never mind, his performance was of the highest quality and afterwards he gave his views on a match which has set us up nicely for the remaining friendlies.4

He told West Ham TV: “To be fair, Celtic are a quality team and they’ve shown today they play good football, but we’ve come out and played well and scored goals.

“We had opportunities and they had opportunities, and these are the sort of matches that show what we’ll come up against in Europe.

“The goals were decent and hopefully I can carry it on into the season. Obviously scoring goals in pre-season is good to help you bring it into the season, but the most important thing is doing it in the Premier League, doing it in the Europa League and doing it when it actually matters.

“Pre-season is warm-up for the season so if you can do it in pre-season then you can do it in the season, so it’s always better to go out there and give it your all, get your fitness and make sure you perform, because obviously sometimes managers take performances in pre-season to decide if you’re going to start the first game of the season.”