U18s secure Saints success

West Ham United completed a second-half comeback to beat Southampton
A last-minute winner from Jahmal Hector-Ingram saw West Ham United score a fine 2-1 Barclays U18 Premier League Southern Division victory over Southampton on Saturday.

The Hammers had fallen behind before half-time, but produced a superb second-half comeback to make it back-to-back victories following a win at Reading the previous weekend.

Southampton started the better of the two sides at Little Heath and Latvian goalkeeper Rihards Matrevics had already saved from Yan Valery before Ollie Cook scored nine minutes before half-time.

West Ham hit back after the break and levelled on the hour-mark when impressive winger Dan Kemp switched flanks to good effect and hit a shot which took a wicked deflection to loop over Jake Hallett and level the scores.

The hosts applied plenty of pressure after their equaliser, though the Saints seemed to stem the tide and even created chances of their own, with Thomas O’Connor striking an effort narrowly wide.

With time running out, a long ball forward was seized upon by England youth international Hector-Ingram, who got free of the last defender before slotting the ball in under Hallett for the match-winner.

While Southampton slipped to a seventh consecutive defeat and remain second-bottom, West Ham’s second straight win lifted them to fifth in the table.

U18s: Matrevics, Eggleton (Madden 74), Borg, Carter (c), Akinola, Rice, Kanu, Lewis (Coventry 46), Hector-Ingram, Ford (Diangana 55), Kemp
Subs not used: Jake Leonard, Ben Johnson