Moyes and staff watch U23 disaster
West Ham’s under 23s collapsed to Derby County’s under 23s on a bitterly cold east London night.
In fairness it has to be said that the team were without its three most inspirational players – Declan Rice – who is booked for first team squad duty at Watford – Nathan Holland and Josh Pask.
With new first-team manager David Moyes and his assistants watching, the Hammers fell behind after just 28 seconds, with striker Offrande Zanzala firing across keeper Nathan Trott.
Sead Haksabanovic forced a fine save from Rams keeper Josh Barnes only for Luke Thomas to go straight up the other end and sweep home the visitors’ second.
Two became three when Thomas’s shot rebounded off the crossbar and the fortunate Zanzala before rolling past the helpless Trott.
With some awful defending going on, Trott was again left stranded after making smart saves from Alex Babos and Thomas but Charlie Vernam and Jayden Bogle picked up the left overs to make it five.
Despite the scoreline, the Hammers dominated towards the end and Dan Kemp, Akinola and Haksabanovic all brought saves from Barnes before Toni Martinez hit the crossbar with a 25 yard drive..
Samuelsen was also denied but substitute Grady Diangana managed to flash home a terrific volley from Domingos Quina’s pass.
Martinez shot narrowly over a before Barnes again superbly denied Haksabanovic and Anthony Scully and Diangana fired a shot against the woodwork.