- West Ham United's U18s were beaten 3-0 at home by Chelsea
- The Hammers now have to rely on other results so to determine their final league position
- Mark Phillips said his side didn't deserve to be beaten by a margin of three goals
West Ham United U18s rounded off the U18 Premier League South campaign with a undeserving 3-0 defeat at home to league leaders Chelsea.
Three second half goals from the Blues made it four defeats in a row for the Hammers but they can take heart from another battling display.
“I thought we performed very well against them today. They’ve leading at the top by a mile but we could well have beaten them today,” said assistant manager Mark Phillips.
“A little bit of better finishing would have helped us but overall I think we did alright today.”
“We had four U16s playing for us today and they did very well. I’m very pleased for them.”
The U18’s resources were stretched with absentees including Conor Coventry, Joe Powell, Alfie Lewis, Ben Wells and Rosaire Longelo.
But their relative inexperience did not seem to matter in the first half as the Hammers edged a tight opening 45 minutes.
Chances were at a premium with Jeremy Ngakia’s shot flying over the bar ten minutes before half-time providing the only real goalmouth action.
However, the Hammers were hit by a suckerpunch just minutes after the interval when Chelsea captain Luke McCormick slotted home from the penalty spot after a foul by Reece Hannam.
Jahmal Hector-Ingram could, and probably should, have equalised for the home side minutes later, although he couldn’t quite guide substitute Yiannis Constantinou’s cross on target.
Chelsea showed their class in a five-minute spell midway through the second half. First, Tariq Uwakwe let fly on the half volley from 25 yards and found the top corner, before Cole Da Silva started and finished an intricate move to make it 3-0.
And that’s how it finished, with the Hammers knowing they have to rely on other results to see if they will finish 4th and, as a result, make it into the Elite Merit Group.
“I still think it’s 50/50 as to whether we’ll be in the top four because Fulham have to beat Norwich next week and Norwich aren’t a bad side,” added Phillips.
“If we end up in the middle four, we’ll go and compete with those teams. There’s still some tough tests in there.”
West Ham: Matrevics; Eggleton, Akinola, Alese, Hannam (Constantinou, 59); Mingi; Ngakia, Henry, Johnson, Scully; Hector-Ingram.
Subs not used: Watson, Forde, Rosa, Spyrides.
Bookings: Alese, Hannam.