Dmitri Halajko
Dmitri Halajko saw a Hammers team under his charge lose their first ever game this afternoon when the under 23s went down 1-0 away at Chelsea.
It was a classic confrontation at the outset with the Premier League 2 Division One unbeaten champions of last season meeting our Division Two winners in their first match after promotion and also unbeaten in the 19/20 season.
It was a game the lead coach had believed would show his lads off in the best possible light and they were certainly worth a draw.
In the end Blues youngster Dion Rankine’s 76th-minute goal was enough to win Chelsea the three points on the day but Halajko was not unduly disappointed after a top Hammers display.
The lads missed a number of fine opportunities and staged a grandstand finish but in the end oit justb was not to be for them.
And discussing the game afterwards he told www.whufc.com: “I think we were confident we could compete in Division 1 before the game, but this reaffirms that this is the level we’re at – and these are the type of games we want to play in.
“It was a tough game and a really good, high level game. The momentum was always going to swing. We’d both have our periods of play, and we would have to capitalise on it when we had ours.
“Those games are always really tight and there are fine margins in them. Those are the games our lads need to play in because those are the games our lads learn the most from. The margins are so fine that any mistake or great bit of play could be the deciding factor.
“That’s why we want to be in this league and play in games like this. We showed that we can compete at this level and it’s the kind of level we should be playing at.”
“I think it was a performance that we could be happy with but a result we’re disappointed with. We certainly had enough chances to score without a shadow of the doubt.
