West Ham United U21s have been drawn against Colchester United in the Vertu Trophy round of 32. The tie will take place at Colchester’s JobServe Community Stadium in the week commencing Monday 1 December, with a confirmed date and time set to be communicated in due course.
Our young Hammers last faced the U's at this stage of the competition in 2023/24, when goals from Dan Chesters, George Earthy, Lewis Orford and Divin Mubama secured a 4-0 win and a place in the round of 16.
Since the 2016/17 campaign, the EFL Trophy has brought together clubs from League One and League Two with 16 Category One Academies, including our U21s. This season marks our tenth successive participation in the EFL Trophy since Academy sides were introduced to the competition, having finished as one of the top 16 placed teams in Premier League 2 during 2024/25.
At the beginning of each season, the 64 competing teams are split into 16 regional groups of four, with the top two qualifying for the knockout stages, which remain regionalised until the quarter-finals, inclusive. Up to and including the semi-finals, if a match ends in a draw, no extra-time is played and the tie is decided on penalties.
Our young Hammers are the only development side to have qualified for the knockout stages in 2025/26. In fact, eleven of the 16 youth teams finished bottom of their groups.
Our U21s went top of Southern Group D when we beat MK Dons 5-1 in the opening game in September. Despite taking the lead in the second game at Reading, the young Hammers fell to a 3-1 defeat after we were reduced to ten men when centre-back Ezra Mayers was shown a straight red card just a minute after the restart. That took our hopes of qualification to the final game at joint League Two leaders Swindon Town, in a winner-goes-through game late last month. Goals from Josh Ajala, George Earthy and Josh Landers secured a 3-2 win, second place and a spot in the next round.
It is the fourth time our development side have reached the knockout stages of the EFL Trophy. Only Arsenal and Chelsea boast a better record, with five knockout stage appearances each. Alongside our young Hammers with the second-best record with four are Leicester City and Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Our U21s previously reached the round of 32 in 2017/18 and 2020/21. Meanwhile our best run in the competition came in 2023/24, when a group mainly comprised of 2023 FA Youth Cup winners were defeated in the round of 16 by eventual finalists Wycombe Wanderers.
