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U23s look to turn round woeful five points form

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Dmitri Halajko

It seems the Hammers first team and the Under 23s suffer almost opposite seasons from year to year.

Whilst the first eleven struggled for results last season, the youngsters were charging to a near unbeaten season and winning promotion back to Premier League 2 Divison One.

This time around the situation could barely be more different with the Premier League team steaming up the league and into seventh place whilst th U23s are plum bottom of theirs and way adrift of their nearest rivals.

They have picked up just one win and are stuck on five points with the nearest strugglers being Saints on 11 and the Gooners on 14.

That’s awful form and the lads will be looking for a big pick me up on Friday when Spurs come visiting at Rush Green.

Our boys haven’t had a game since December 14 and desperately need to beat the Spuds – currently holding fourth place and 15 points in advance of us.

Lead coach Dmitri Halajko “The boys have missed playing football, so they’re really hungry,” 

“We’ve had quite a long break now because of COVID complications and the Christmas break, and it’s been a long lay-off.

“The players won’t have trained a lot heading into Friday’s match so we’re anticipating a really tough physical challenge first and foremost, because they won’t have had a large amount of training load in their legs.

“It’s going to be one where they have to show a lot of character and determination just to get through the game from a physical point of view – but we know our players possess those qualities.”

Doesn’t sound great and the lads know they will need a massive effort from Friday onwards if they aren’t to return to League Two after only returning to the top league this term.

The match kicks off at 4 pm

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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