Haycock reveals delight at 'fantastic' Dev Squad season and looks ahead to young stars turning out at Olympic Stadium

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

Haycock incandescent with 'kamikaze' Dev Squad defending

Some sloppy defending saw the Development Squad turn a 2-1 lead into a 5-2 defeat yesterday at Southampton, in what was a vital game in the chase for play-offs and now has derailed West Ham's U21 season, with third place now out of reach.

Manager Nick Haycock didn’t let his players off for the second half display but hopes that such a defeat will spur his players on for a positive last game at West Brom.

Haycock told West Ham TV: "We'll look back at that first 20 minutes and wonder how we've lost the game at all, never mind by that scoreline. For those 20 minutes the boys played to instructions, got out the traps and hit them hard early. We were a threat doing things the right way and we could have been 3-0 up before they'd even started.”

While Haycock admits that forced half time substitutions may have unsettled his team, he also noted that the young players have to learn to adapt to changes.

On the loss he said, "no excuses, they played better than us. Sometimes as a coach you have to hold your hands up and say the second 45 minutes was totally dominated by Southampton. They looked hungrier, they looked more intelligent and they looked like they wanted to win the game.

"It's the first time they have let me down and I told them that in no uncertain terms. The performance levels in the second half were unacceptable."

On the defensive side of the performance, Haycock knows that all five goals could have been avoided with better and sharper defending. He added: "good performances start from the back with keeping a clean sheet. It has stood the first team in good stead this year and I've told the boys that if you're a defender at this club, your job is to defend. The goals were kamikaze.”

He even went as far as to say that the side were “lucky” that the scoreline was only 5-2, and this seems to be the most animated and unhappy we’ve seen Haycock this season. He concluded: "I don't what the season to witter away. I want a reaction as a group of players and we have to look to West Brom to make sure we finish the season strongly."

So do we Nick, so do we!

By Lucy Woolford, Youth and Development Squad reporter

@lucy_whufc

Dev Squad miss out on play offs

The West Ham Development Squad played their penultimate match in the Barclays U21 Premier League Elite Group Stage this afternoon against Southampton and despite a good start, a 5-2 defeat means that they have missed out on third place.

Elliot Lee continued his excellent vein of form and scored after four minutes from a Sean Maguire pass to put the Hammers ahead, but Southampton equalised 10 minutes later.

The sweltering weather on the South Coast didn’t make the match any easier for either set of players, but the pace of the game continued as Irons went 2-1 ahead after a Jack Stephens handball gave George Moncur the opportunity to score from the penalty spot.

A late and somewhat scruffy first-half equaliser from Southampton was a little scruffy ensured the sides went into the break on level terms.

A double substitution from Nick Haycock at half time introduced Taylor Miles and Frazer Shaw to the action in place of Dan Potts and Ben Marlow, but the second half did not bring the positives of the first.

Two defensive errors midway through the second half gave the home side their third and fourth goal of the game and heads dropped, as the Saints then made it 5-2 late on.

The Hammers now face bottom of the league West Brom in the rearranged fixture which will be their last of the season. They have missed out on third place in the league and the play-offs, which will disappoint the players and Haycock, but the ever changing squad can draw positives from this season.

We’ll get you some reaction on this heavy defeat as it comes through.

By Lucy Woolford, Youth and Development Squad reporter

@lucy_whufc