Vashon Neufville says he is excited to get even more minutes in his legs after returning to West Ham United’s U23 starting XI against Dinamo Zagreb on Tuesday in the Premier League International Cup.
The Hammers were beaten 2-0 by their Croatian opponents at the Chigwell Construction Stadium, conceding in each half without reply despite having most of the ball in east London.
Neufville, who was playing his first game this season having been sidelined with a serious knee injury, got an hour in the clash alongside Nathan Holland, who also made his comeback following injury lay-off.
Left-back Neufville was pleased with how his body coped with a first competitive match back in action and is now looking ahead to future games.
He said: “It was good, it felt really good to be back and it was great to get my first minutes of the season. I felt sharp out there.
“I played in one of the friendlies during the last international break so I got minutes then, and I felt sluggish in that one but I felt a lot better against Zagreb, so it is really good to be back.
“I think we all felt that 2-0 was a little bit harsh on us in the game, but we made two mistakes and got punished for them and we know that we can’t do that.
I need to get ready to kick on again in two weeks. Hopefully I can stay injury free for the rest of the season and help the team.
Vashon Neufville
“We have to be better than that but we will learn from it. Going forward we could have done more as well. I think out in wide positions we maybe could have done more and we were maybe not as creative as we had hoped.
“They are things we now need to go away and work on on the training ground and that’s what we will now do over the international break.”
Prior to Tuesday’s defeat, Neufville’s last involvement with the U23s was when Arsenal visited London Stadium in Premier League 2 last season way back in April.
And with Blackburn Rovers the next test for Liam Manning and Steve Potts’ side coming up in two weeks time, the 19-year-old has his sights set on improving his fitness game-by-game.
“I can’t wait to carry on now after the international break,” he continued.
“It gives me a little bit of time to recover from this game and then get ready to kick on again in two weeks. Hopefully I can stay injury free for the rest of the season and help the team.”