West Ham United U21s v Aston Villa U21s
Premier League 2, Rush Green Stadium, Friday 24 October 2025, 7pm BST
The fixtures keep on coming thick and fast for West Ham United U21s, who host Aston Villa U21s in Premier League 2 just three days after our 3-3 draw at Sutton United in the National League Cup.
Following the promotion of U21 Academy coaching staff to Nuno Espírito Santo’s first-team staff and subsequent temporary Academy coaching changes, Head of Coaching and Player Development Greg Lincoln will continue to lead the U21 development squad in the short term, assisted by Academy Transition and Pathways Manager Mark Phillips, U18s Coach Zavon Hines and U18s Goalkeeper Coach Chris Lewington. The Club will make further announcements on the Academy coaching structure going forward at the appropriate time.
Tickets...
Tickets can be purchased at the turnstiles, priced at £5 for Adults and £1 for U18s. Season Ticket Holders can attend for free by showing their Season Ticket at the entrance.
Travel...
The postcode for Rush Green Stadium - at West Ham United’s first-team training ground - is RM7 0LU.
To access the ground via public transport, fans can take a train to Romford station, then board a 5, 103 or 175 bus for the 15-minute ride and get off at the Barton Avenue stop.
Supporters using public transport are advised to check their journeys before they travel, using resources such as TfL’s Journey Planner and the TfL Go app. Supporters may also wish to visit the National Rail website if travelling on the rail network.
Fans wishing to attend this Premier League 2 fixture by car should note that there is no parking available for spectators at Rush Green Stadium.
How To Follow...
The game will be blogged live, while a live stream of the fixture will be available across the Club’s website and app. A match report, highlights and reaction will also follow the full-time whistle.
Premier League 2 Explained…
To minimise the impact of relegation on future groups of U21 players, the Premier League introduced a new format to its development phase competition in 2023/24.
Replacing the two-division system, the 29 Category One academies now compete in a single tier with 20 regular season fixtures before the top 16 seeded teams advance to single-elimination play-offs.
Regular season fixtures are determined by a draw made according to clubs’ performances over the last three seasons. Each team plays 20 different opponents before the play-offs in April and May, where they will be drawn against each other based on league positions, with the higher seeded team playing at home. The top 16 are also rewarded with a place in the following season’s Premier League International Cup competition.
New for this season, the eight clubs finishing between 17th and 24th will enter a cross-category play-off competition alongside the top eight teams from the Professional Development League (Category Two). This competition will also feature a knockout format, starting with a round of 16.
Opposition…
After finishing rock bottom of Premier League 2 last season, the promotion of the U18 Premier League and FA Youth Cup double-winning squad this campaign has seen Aston Villa make a much more positive start to 2025/26.
By the end of September, the young Villans had already recorded more league wins than during the entirety of last season - a record which sees them sit in 13th place, three points within the play-off cut-off point.
Their best finish since the introduction of the new Premier League 2 format in 2023/24 saw them claim the final play-off spot. Against top seeded Tottenham Hotspur in the round of 16, Villa took the tie to extra time, but with ten men fell to a 4-3 defeat against the eventual champions.
The last time they faced our young Hammers in this competition was way back in 2019, when a side captained by Winston Reid, featuring a second-year pro Ben Johnson, put Villa to the sword with a 4-0 win at Dagenham’s Victoria Road.
Last Time Out...
Our young Hammers claimed a bonus point on penalties after an entertaining 3-3 draw against Sutton United in the National League Cup earlier this week.
A brace from Emeka Adiele and a late penalty from Josh Ajala were unfortunately not enough to secure all three points as the hosts equalised twice late on.
Undeterred, our young Hammers’ four flawless spot-kicks earned a really important extra point which sees us sit just a point off Woking in second in Group C.
The Story So Far...
Having opened our account for the 2025/26 Premier League 2 campaign with defeats against the reigning Premier League International Cup champions, Nottingham Forest, and reigning Premier League 2 champions, Manchester City, we have started to hit our stride.
Since those two defeats, our U21s have scored first in all but one of our following seven games, winning three of them, drawing two and losing just one.
Successive victories against Sunderland and Birmingham City in PL2, either side of our joint-biggest win in the EFL Trophy over MK Dons, were then followed up by league draws against Brighton & Hove Albion and Arsenal, meaning we are unbeaten in the league since August. We will now be looking to extend that impressive record on Friday evening.
