West Ham United Under-18s 0-0 Crystal Palace Under-18s
Tony Carr was happy to see his youthful side stop a run of three successive defeats with a goalless draw against Crystal Palace on Saturday.
The academy director was particularly pleased with how United coped with set-pieces against a physical Eagles team and also showed good fitness, despite several having been involved with the reserves in midweek. The lively Oliver Lee had the best of the home side's moments at Little Heath, spurning a good opportunity when a goal seemed certain. Among the unused substitutes was schoolboy forward Daniel Subuola and Austrian midfielder Georg Grasser, who had a good 70 minutes in the reserves 4-1 defeat at Fulham on Tuesday.
Carr said: "It wa a much-improved performance. We still need to be a little bit more clinical in front of goal. I thought we did enough in the second half to have won the game but what was pleasing was our all-round team performance and that we obviously kept a clean sheet.
"That was a plus and it was one step forward. We had to play players that had played in the reserves during the week. Considering all of that I thought it was a good result for us. I am disappointed we didn't win but it was a very good performance."
West Ham United: Street, Miller, Brown, McNaughton, Fry, Edgar, Lee, Okus, Kearns, Bajner, Abdulla (Montano 70)
Subs not used: Loveday, Barrett, Grasser, Subuola