Match Report - West Ham U17 V Leicester City U17 - 13 Mar 2004

It was mixed fortunes for the youth teams at the weekend with the U19s losing against Arsenal while the U17s recorded a massive win over Leicester.

The 3-1 defeat at Arsenal left Tony Carr scratching his head as to why his team started so poorly.

"We were 2-0 down in 10 minutes thanks to avoidable errors; Trent McLenehan played a woefully short back pass for the first and there was a mix-up between Sealey and Blewitt which gifted them the second goal," he says.

"So we had to claw it back and when we were chasing the game we were caught on the break for them to score in the last minute.

"It was one of those days; we didn't start well and the game was lost early on - but the preparation was as good as normal.

"I can't put finger my finger on why we didn't start on the front foot but we were punished badly and contributed to our own downfall."

The plus point was the substitute performance of schoolboy Ishmail Welsh and Tony adds:

"Welsh has played a couple of games and I am pleased he came on as sub to score the goal."

As for the U17s, they demolished Leicester 6-0 with goals from Mark Noble, Ephraim [2], Brady [pen], Henry, and Davidson.

Comments Kevin Keen diplomatically:

"It was a good win and that is all I would say."