Billy McKinlay said West Ham United had plenty of reasons to be happy with their 6-2 pre-season win over Perth Glory on Saturday evening.
The Irons kicked-off their two match Unmissable Football tour to Western Australia with an entertaining victory in front of nearly 25,000 supporters at Optus Stadium.
The supporters who had travelled from all over Australia and beyond were rewarded with eight goals, including two from UEFA Europa Conference League final hero Jarrod Bowen and one each from Gianluca Scamacca, Emerson and Divin Mubama.
Having themselves travelled 9,000 miles in midweek, the Irons showed no signs of jet lag as they scored within 65 seconds, then double their lead through Scamacca’s penalty.
Glory rallied, pulled one back and could have levelled just after half-time, but sharply-taken goals from Bowen and Emerson made it 4-1. With both managers making multiple substitutions, Perth scored again, but Mubama and Bowen had the final say to complete a very good night’s work.
With the likes of Łukasz Fabiański and Pablo Fornals also impressing, and a group of Academy prospects showing their promise, assistant coach McKinlay was in positive mood when he spoke to West Ham TV.
With a second Unmissable Football fixture against Premier League rivals Tottenham Hotspur at Optus Stadium to look forward to on Tuesday evening, when a crowd in excess of 50,000 is expected, there is much to look forward to.
It was a good evening all round really.
We got a great welcome, the support we got was terrific, as it has been since we’ve been here in Australia, so that was a good start to the game in terms of the support we had.
I thought the performance was really good and in the first half it was a good game and they caused us some problems.
We played some good football at times, scored some good goals, and overall it was a really good workout.
A couple of seasons ago we had a really good pre-season and scored shed loads of goals, if you remember that.
We didn’t score too many goals in the last pre-season campaign, so starting with four and then six can only be a positive.
Scoring six goals was nice, and the front players being amongst the goals is always important. Jarrod scored a couple of goals and Divin and Gianluca scored, so we’re really pleased.
Jarrod has come back looking in really good fettle for obvious reasons.
He looks really, really sharp. We’re only ten days into pre-season and he’s come back like a house on fire.
He’s a great player, a great boy. In no way, shape or form will he get above his station after what happened in the final.
He just works hard, he runs, he loves the game, and it’s a really good start.
We’ve had a really, really good welcome in Western Australia.
We had over 2,000 fans at the first day of training and then the support again tonight was incredible.
It’s a great opportunity for the fans to see us in the flesh, live, and the players up close and personal - it’s been really, really good.
Spurs will be a big test and the level of the game is as good as it gets.
It’s two London clubs, a great rivalry, and a derby on the other side of the world.
We’re ticking along nicely with our preparation, so it’ll be a really, really good game.
