West Ham United U21s v Ipswich Town U21s
Pre-Season Match, Rush Green Stadium, Saturday 9 August 2025, 12noon BST
West Ham United U21s will conclude their pre-season schedule with a behind-closed-doors friendly against Premier League 2 opponents Ipswich Town U21s at Rush Green Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
The match marks the young Hammers’ seventh and final pre-season outing, and their first against fellow development opposition.
So far, Mark Robson’s side have tested themselves against six senior teams: three National League South clubs tipped for promotion in Worthing, Ebbsfleet United, and Maidenhead United; League One’s Northampton Town; National League side Boreham Wood; and, most recently, Spanish Primera RFEF outfit Atlético Sanluqueño during a warm-weather training camp in southern Spain.
Tickets…
This match is a behind-closed-doors fixture and will therefore not be open to the public.
How To Follow…
We will have a match report and exclusive reaction for you after the final whistle on our website. Highlights will be available on Sunday.
Opposition…
Ipswich Town are one of three clubs joining Premier League 2 for the 2025/26 season, having been granted Category One Academy status in July. Burnley and Birmingham City will also be competing in the highest tier of development football during the 2025/26 season.
Until this summer, Ipswich competed in the Southern Group of the Professional Development League, the tier below PL2, where they finished fifth in each of the past two campaigns.
John McGreal's U21s have had a busy pre-season of their own, travelling to Slovakia in July to face the development teams of OFK Dynamo Maloženice and ŠK Slovan Bratislava, as well as Hungarian side ETO Akadémia.
Upon returning from Central Europe, the Tractor Boys played two Step 3 clubs, beating Isthmian Premier Division outfit Needham Market 2-1, before falling 3-0 to Southern League Premier Central side Bury Town.
Like the Hammers, Saturday’s clash will be Ipswich’s final pre-season fixture before they kick off their debut Premier League 2 campaign on Friday 15 August at home to Derby County.
The Story So Far...
As mentioned, West Ham United U21s have so far spent pre-season testing themselves against senior opposition, with fixtures against Worthing, Ebbsfleet United, Maidenhead United, Northampton Town, Boreham Wood and Atlético Sanluqueño.
Elsewhere, seven U21s players were involved in the first team’s pre-season trip to Germany (Mohamadou Kanté, Finlay Herrick, Lanre Awesu, Ezra Mayers, Emeka Adiele, Preston Fearon and Airidas Golambeckis).
Joining Academy graduates Ollie Scarles, Kaelan Casey, George Earthy, Lewis Orford, Callum Marshall and Freddie Potts, development squad players Kanté, Herrick, Awesu, Fearon and Golambeckis were also part of the senior squad’s pre-season tour of the United States for the Premier League Summer Series, where 18-year-old Fearon was rewarded with his first-team debut, impressing as a substitute in the Hammers’ Premier League Summer Series clash with Manchester United in front of around 40,000 supporters at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.
