Grady Diangana insists West Ham United U23s’ bizarre 5-1 defeat by Derby County will not derail their season.
The Hammers went into their Friday night fixture with the Rams at London Stadium knowing victory would take them up to second place in Premier League 2 Division 1.
However, a Derby goal within 30 seconds and two more in the opening six minutes of the second half rocked the hosts and, despite controlling possession for long periods and creating far more chances than their opponents, Terry Westley’s side somehow ended up on the wrong end of a heavy defeat.
“Letting in the early goal really put us in trouble and the half-time team talk was to come out and go for them, so to concede early again was really poor from us,” admitted Diangana, who scored West Ham’s consolation and also hit the crossbar after being sent on by Westley as a second-half substitute.
“We just lacked that courage and strength to drive each other through the bad times.
“That said, this defeat is not going to define us. It’s just one setback and we’re ready to make a major comeback.”
Diangana said the Club’s young professionals, including Sead Haksabanovic, Dan Kemp, Domingos Quina, Nathan Trott and Toni Martinez, would learn a lot from how they were punished for virtually every defensive mistake by Derby.
“That game replicated a first-team environment because if you make one silly error, the other team will counter-attack and score, so it’s a learning curve for us and we have to be more reliable on the ball.
“We sat down after the game and got a telling off, but we’ve got to pick our heads up and go again.”
From Diangana’s personal perspective, his performance was a strong one, with the attacking midfielder playing his part as the Hammers attempted to launch an unlikely late comeback.
The 19-year-old capped his display with an eye-catching first-time volley, which flew past otherwise unbeatable Derby goalkeeper Josh Barnes.
“I was told to go on and give my all and give my maximum and that’s what I did. I don’t score many tap-ins, to be honest, and I’d rather switch it around and score more goals if they were all tap-ins!”
Next up for the U23s is a mouth-watering home fixture in the Premier League International Cup, with Portuguese giants Benfica visiting Billericay Town’s AGP Arena on Tuesday evening at 7pm.
There, Diangana insists the Hammers will be eager to get Friday’s defeat out of their system.
“When we have a match like this, we have a chance to do better straight away. They will be similar to Villarreal, who we lost to in our opening match in this competition, so it’ll be up to us to rise to the test.”