West Ham United U21s will prepare for the 2025/26 campaign with a series of exciting pre-season matches against senior opposition.
Mark Robson’s side finished fourth in Premier League 2 last season and also produced impressive victories over Sutton United and Ebbsfleet United in the National League Cup.
The Hammers’ young professionals will seek to build on those achievements when the new Premier League 2 season kicks-off over the weekend of Saturday 16 August.
Before then, Robson will take his squad to face four senior sides in pre-season, starting with a trip to West Sussex to face National League South team Worthing at Sussex Transport Community Stadium on Saturday 12 July at 3pm.
Worthing finished last season fourth in National League South, just a point behind champions Truro City, and lost to Maidstone United in the play-off quarter-finals.
The Irons’ U21s will return to Kent to face a second National League South club, Ebbsfleet United, at the Kufflink Stadium on Tuesday 15 July at 7pm.
West Ham XIs have been regular visitors to Stonebridge Road in recent years, winning 2-1 there in the National League Cup group stage in January 2025, having lost 2-0 at the same venue in pre-season in July 2024. The U21s also visited in pre-season in each of the preceding three seasons, losing 2-1 in 2021 and 2023, and winning 2-1 in 2022.
Ebbsfleet will be seeking to bounce back from a challenging 2024/25 campaign that saw them finish bottom of the National League and be relegated.
Also relegated from the National League were the U21s’ third pre-season opponents Maidenhead United, who have been managed by West Ham legend Alan Devonshire since 2015.
Robson’s side will visit York Road to take on Devonshire’s Magpies on Saturday 19 July at 3pm.
The fourth pre-season fixture will also see the young Hammers come up against a team managed by a former West Ham favourite in Kevin Nolan’s Northampton Town.
Nolan led the Cobblers to safety in EFL League One after being appointed manager in December 2024, collecting 30 points from his 25 matches in charge to climb out of the relegation zone and finish 19th.
The game will be played on Tuesday 22 July at 7pm and could see the Hammers come up against Academy of Football graduate Kamarai Swyer, who joins Northampton this summer.
Tickets for all four pre-season games will go on sale in due course.
