Academy Director Terry Westley believes poor decision-making played a crucial role in the U23s’ 1-0 defeat to Sunderland.
A 14th minute finish from Lee Connelly was the difference between the two sides on Monday evening, as West Ham United fell to a second straight defeat in the league.
Westley feels his side came close to levelling the game in the second period, after two substitutions at half-time, but acknowledges the match was lost in the first half.
“I thought we started really poorly which gave them the initiative to get in the game,” Westley told whufc.com. “Their goal was quite a classic of that. It ends up with our ‘keeper, who makes a bad decision, and the next thing it ends up in our net.
“I just thought our decision-making, overall, wasn’t good enough in the first half. We shook things up at half-time and I have to say I think that made a difference in the second half, but we just couldn’t get an equaliser. We came really close.”
I just thought our decision-making, overall, wasn’t good enough in the first half.
Terry Westley
A young line-up took to the pitch for the Hammers with only Marcus Browne and January signing Oladapo Afolayan older than 19-years-old, and Westley admits injuries played a role in the contest.
The new forward’s performance was praised by the Academy Director, as was the league debut of Josh Okotcha, and Browne.
He continued: “We were very young and we had to make some late changes this weekend. Josh Okotcha played for the youth team in Swansea at the weekend, so it’s not ideal. Reece Hannam is the same. We had a lot of players out – Pike, Vashon, Pask – Aji is with England as well.
“We’re down on a lot of players but it’s down to this group of players to get the results we are looking for.
“You always come away with positives. Okotcha did well tonight in his U23 league debut, at under 16. I thought Marcus Browne was head and shoulders better than anyone else on the pitch. He was driving on the ball and the way he led as a captain.
“Oladapo has made a good debut. We wanted to wait a little while because he’s only been with us two training sessions, but because of injuries we’ve had to throw him in a lot sooner than we anticipated. But he’s got five shots off and they’ve all hit the target. I think he showed us what he’s about.”
With Toni Martinez, Martin Samuelsen, captain Moses Makasi and Reece Burke all leaving West Ham on loan in January, the opportunity to claim a place in the U23s have opened up, something Westley was eager for his young side to understand.
He added: “We’ve just said to the players in the dressing room: ‘you’ve waited and, at first team level, sometimes you have one opportunity to have an impact’.
“The ones who haven’t been playing have now come in and they’ve got to show, firstly, that they are as good as the ones that have gone out on loan, and they can then kick on and become a success. That’s the challenge.”