It's been a big week or so for Regan Clayton.
The left-sided defender was on hand to provide an important assist against Brighton and Hove Albion U21s on Monday night, just five days after triumph in the FA Youth Cup quarter finals against Ipswich Town.
In a 3-2 Premier League 2 victory at Rush Green Stadium, Clayton played a key role for the U21s, expertly sliding the ball through to Divin Mubama to give the Hammers a 2-0 advantage midway through the second half.
The 18-year-old was delighted with the three points and his own performance.
“It’s been a really good week,” Clayton told whufc.com. “The Youth Cup win on Wednesday was fantastic but it was 120 minutes of really hard work. I’m glad that I was able to start again with the U21s and to get another win was really positive. It’s been a really successful week but I’m a bit tired now!
“I’ll be ready to go again on Friday though. We’ve got another big game coming up against Manchester City and hopefully we've be able to cap off the week with another win.”
Whilst being delighted with the hard fought three points, Clayton admitted that the Hammers were not at their brilliant best throughout the 90 minutes.
“It’s a massive three points for us,” the defender reflected. “We’ve been building momentum over the last couple of months and tonight’s win keeps our momentum going. It was crucial for us to win because we want to keep pushing up the table.
“We made a slow start in the first half and we knew that we needed to be better in the second half. We were better after half-time, we were very good in possession and we scored some great goals. On the other hand, it was really disappointing to concede the two goals. They were really avoidable, but it’s something that we need to reflect on and put right.”
Mark Robson’s young Hammers have now won six of their last eight league matches after another impressive victory on Monday night.
After a difficult start to the season for the young Irons, Clayton said that the U21s must continue to build upon their current momentum in order to continue their climb up the Premier League 2 table.
“We started the season really poorly and we put ourselves into a position that we didn’t want to be in. We know that we need to put things right and to do that we need to keep fighting and keep winning. It was good to get another important victory against Brighton.
“Every game that we play is so big and so important. We want to push ourselves and we want to improve as players. No matter who we play we want to put points on the board so we’ll look to push on again now.”
