West Ham United U21s 3-3 Brighton & Hove Albion U21s
Premier League 2, Rush Green Stadium, Friday 26 September 2025, 7pm BST
West Ham United U21s were made to settle for a point in a crazy Premier League 2 contest at Rush Green Stadium, drawing 3-3 with Brighton & Hove Albion after a lightning start saw Josh Landers hit a 25-minute hat-trick.
Against one of the strongest academies in the league and a side in excellent form, the young Hammers exploded into the contest, racing into a three-goal lead inside 25 minutes.
Landers, back in the side after an injury picked up during the international break, wasted no time in announcing his return with two goals inside the opening eight minutes. The first came after a superb move down the left, with Emeka Adiele’s low delivery tucked away following good build-up from Preston Fearon.
Landers gives us an early lead in east London 👊 pic.twitter.com/zJq5pKXbQm
— West Ham United (@WestHam) September 26, 2025
Moments later, Mohamadou Kanté slid Landers through and the striker coolly found the far corner.
2 PL2 starts 🤝 2 PL2 braces
What a start to life in the U21s for Landers 😍 pic.twitter.com/7Y7uiJZzPG— West Ham United (@WestHam) September 26, 2025
If Brighton were shell-shocked, West Ham only turned up the pressure. Landers completed his hat-trick midway through the half, reacting quickest to a spilled save from Jethro Medine’s effort to poke home.
Landers with a hat-trick inside 25 minutes 😳 pic.twitter.com/7t9SUo1P0s
— West Ham United (@WestHam) September 26, 2025
At that point, Mark Robson’s side looked full of confidence, mixing sharp passing with great movement and solid defending to keep Brighton’s usually fluent attack at bay. Even when Harry Howell, who scored his first senior goal in midweek in a 6-0 Carabao Cup win over Barnsley, struck the bar before the break, the young Hammers’ backline held firm to take a commanding lead into half-time.
Brighton, however, showed why they are so highly regarded. A quickfire double just after the restart from Shane Nti and Joe Belmont reignited the contest and shifted momentum firmly in favour of the visitors.
Although Fearon went close to restoring the cushion with a low drive just past the post, the Seagulls’ relentless pressure told late on. With five minutes to play, a cross from the right was turned home by Belmont to level things up at 3-3.
With both sides unsatisfied with a share of the spoils, it was a frantic nine minutes of injury time, but ultimately the two sides shared the points in what was a classic example of a game of two halves.
Our U21s now turn their attention to Tuesday night where a victory over Reading could all but guarantee them a spot in the knockout stages of the EFL Trophy.
West Ham United U21s: Wooster, Battrum, Oyebade, Fearon, Golambeckis ©, Mayers, Battrum (Sowunmi 75), Kanté, Landers (Dike 63), Caliste (Akpata 75), Adiele (Brown 68)
Sub not used: Byrne (GK)
Goals: Landers 7, 8, 24
Booked: Battrum, Fearon, Golambeckis, Kanté
Brighton & Hove Albion U21s: Ramming, Barclay, Keogh, Simmonds ©, Atom (MacKley HT), Knight (Owusu 88), Oriola, Robertson (Mills 90+4), Belmont, Howell (Silsby 77), Nti
Sub not used: Jensen (GK)
Goals: Nti 50, Belmont 52, 85
Booked: Atom, Knight Robertson
Robson: It’s a massive learning curve for us, particularly for the younger ones
Our opponents Brighton came into the contest as one of the most in-form sides in the country, already with five wins across all competitions, one of only three U21s teams to manage that so far this season.
West Ham on a three-game winning streak of their own, fielded a young side with an average age of just 18.5, largely made up of first-year professionals, and even handed an U21s debut to forward Andre Dike, who was immediately tested against the experienced 28-year-old Ben Barclay.
The early story, though, belonged to Josh Landers. Back from injury sustained on international duty, the striker continued his prolific rise with a first-half hat-trick, taking his tally to five goals in just two Premier League 2 starts since stepping up from the U18s over the summer. It comes on the back of four goals for Scotland U19s in their 7-1 win over the United Arab Emirates, meaning Landers has scored seven times in his last two outings.
“Josh did really well,” Lead Coach Mark Robson said. “The first one was a really, really good finish, but it wasn’t just about his goals. I thought his hold-up play and bringing others into the game has improved a lot. He’s been out for a couple of weeks so we were limited in how much time we could give him tonight, but to score that hat-trick, I was really pleased for him.”
On the team’s overall performance, he continued: “I thought we were excellent first half. We really took the game to them and caused them problems. We’ve been consistent in how we’ve played all season. Probably only against Manchester City did we not perform properly, but in every other game we’ve been really good, in and out of possession, and together as a group. The boys are taking on board the work we’re doing with them and it’s enjoyable to watch them developing.”
The second half told a different story, however: “We’re probably a little disappointed we didn’t play as well after the break. We went a bit longer from the goalkeeper, lost a bit of composure and maybe a bit of confidence when they scored early. We probably just needed to stay calm and relax, and maybe if we did that the result could have been different. But overall, I can’t grumble. In the end I was happy with the point because they put us under a lot of pressure. They’re a strong, good side with some really good players, and physically they probably had the better of us in the second half.”
“It was a really good opportunity to get Andre [Dike] on and give him a taste of U21s football. Going up against someone like Barclay, that’s a massive challenge and probably a big ‘wow’ for him because he wouldn’t have faced that sort of player before.
“When we look back at the goals we conceded, there are little mistakes that we’ll work on. They’re part of our identity as a team, and if we’d got them right, maybe they don’t score. But it’s a massive learning curve, particularly for the younger ones. As the cliché goes, it was a game of two halves, in the first half I thought we were better than them, in the second half they were better than us.”
