Brown targets victory over Black Cats

West Ham United Development Squad striker Jordan Brown is relishing Monday night’s crucial match with Sunderland at the Black Cat’s Eppleton training ground.

The Dev Squad last played over a month ago when they recorded an impressive 2-1 win over London rivals Fulham, with Brown netting the winner with a header at the back post, his first goal for the U21s this season.  

Speaking ahead of the Hammers crunch game with the Black Cats, the in-form striker Jordan Brown said: “It’s been a while since our last U21 game, about a month and I’m really looking forward to getting back playing.

“It was very important to win our last game before the break. I think we’ve got the foundation of the team sorted now, we just need to carry on playing from where we left off.”

In the reverse fixture at the start of the season, the Dev Squad triumphed 2-0 courtesy of two late goals from Elliot Lee.

Now that the Dev Squad top goal scorer on five goals has gone out on loan at Luton Town, Brown knows he has an opportunity to fill Lee’s shoes.     

“We beat Sunderland at Upton Park, the good thing in that game was that we kept it tight at the back. Even though we had first team experience, everyone did well and we deserved to win.

“I know Sunderland are a hardworking team, they have several players who likes to get on the ball and Duncan Watmore, a winger who can play upfront who is really quick, he likes to get in behind the defence so we need to wary of that.”

Having scored seven goals in 14 games for the U18s this season, Brown boasts an impressive scoring ratio of a goal every other game and the Hammers will need the striker to be at his prolific best come Monday evening.

Following the Sunderland game, the Hammers face a difficult run of games as they face Manchester City, Liverpool and Manchester United in their next three games.  

“A win is probably a must at this point of the season. If we keep playing well then you never know what might happen.

“We just need to focus what’s ahead of us and not what’s behind us. We just need to concentrate, work hard as a team and get those wins.”

Having impressed for the U18s and U21s, Brown has caught the attentions of the first team coaches and he now regularly trains with the senior team.
 
Speaking about his experiences of training alongside fellow striker such as Diafra Sakho and Enner Valencia, Brown continued: “It’s been good training with the first team, it’s not as scary as I thought it would be. They’re nice people to work with and obviously it’s great to train with Premier League players, it can only help my development.

“All of the players have impressed me at different points, as a striker I’ve come up against James Tomkins quite a few times.

“Playing against him, I’ve realised how clever he is, and how clever you need to be to play in the Premiership. I’ll make a run and he’ll read it even before the ball has been played. He’ll get to it before I’ve even seen him coming so he’s impressed me a lot.” 

West Ham United Development Squad play Sunderland U21s on Monday 9 March, kick off is 7PM.