West Ham U21s manager Nick Haycock has brushed aside the disappointment of two defeats in the last matches of the season and has praised his young side for a great season in a competitive Elite U21 Premier League.
Speaking to West Ham TV after yesterday 1-0 defeat to West Brom, Haycock looked back on the positives from the year.
"Taking this game away, I'm delighted with the players this season. We've given young players a chance on a regular basis and a stat revealed we're the youngest team in the U21s league, which is great news. The league has been a fantastic thing for West Ham United.
"This place is full of good young players who are getting challenged now, playing up, playing with and against older players. I can only see us going onto bigger and brighter things. We've more than competed in this Elite Group and I think we warranted being in that top three.”
Unfortunately his rallying cries in recent weeks didn’t see results go their way to end the season on a high, but he was pleased with the performance against Albion despite the loss.
He said: "We gave a poor goal away right on the stroke of half time and that ended up costing us the game. The second-half display was much better. It showed that we had the quality to score and on another day we might have had two or three."
He was also highly complimentary about youngsters George Moncur, Sebastian Lletget, Pelly Ruddock, Leo Chambers and Elliot Lee.
As a final conclusion on this up-and-down season, Haycock said: "This was our first year as a Category One Academy and we've made great strides. It's a thriving time, and I've told the players, it's down to them as to how far they go. It's all there for them, the opportunity being the main thing, because it's a club that has always had a tradition of producing players. Three years down the line, we're hoping some of this lot are going to be playing in the Olympic Stadium."
There’s no doubt that some of the season performances have shown the raw talent of both the youngsters brought through the famous Hammers academy and those signed from elsewhere. There have been a few moments of disappointment, but Haycock’s words are a fair round up of an eventful season for the U21 Development Squad.
By Lucy Woolford, Youth and Development Squad reporter
@lucy_whufc
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