Lauris Coggin believes that every player and staff member that has been out in India with the U19s for the Premier League Next Generation Cup will have got something out of the experience.
The young Hammers played their final match in South Asia on Friday evening, as they beat Everton 3-0 at Reliance Corporate Park. It took until late in the second half for Coggin’s side to open the scoring, with Gideon Kodua tapping home a cross from Ryan Battrum to get the Irons on their way.
Next, the ever-impressive Ollie Scarles added a second after yet more superb play on the left-hand side between Battrum and Regan Clayton allowed the winger to slot home a left-footed shot at the near post.
Kodua added a third with a header from a corner, before missing a penalty for a chance to seal his hattrick – with the team ending their time in India with a dominant victory.
The win means that the U19s end their end-of-season trip of India unbeaten, drawn with ATK Mohun Bagan and Stellenbosch, and beaten Bengaluru and the aforementioned Toffees.
Academy Lead Phase Coach Coggin says that it was nice to end the teams time in India with such a good performance, and also spoke about the trip overall and how it has been beneficial for every player and member of staff.
Highlights from the 3-0 win over Everton are available to watch by clicking here!
We’re really pleased to end our time in India with a good performance.
It was a really good one, we had quality in our play, created numerous chances and made sure that we controlled the game for the majority.
It’s always nice to finish any tour with a victory and we’re pleased we’ve been able to finish our time here in such a positive way.
We had to show patience to create the opportunities that eventually led to goals. I’ve said since we arrived about how important it is that we have the ball as much as possible in the heat, and the boys did that well today.
The individual performances as always also help you to have really positive games and we saw that today, I thought the lads were excellent.
Everyone will have got something out of our time in India.
Obviously, our aim was to try and win the tournament, but we also wanted to make sure that every player and staff member comes away with a positive experience.
All of the players have been given a good amount of minutes during the tournament, which was really important. The cultural experiences away from the pitch have also been invaluable, we’ve all learnt so much about India and what life is like here.
I think the main takeaways from the trip are that we’ve explored a different part of the world and we’ve also learnt about what it takes to play every three days in challenging conditions – all of these learnings are really key for the players.
Playing every three days simulates what it would be like to be in the first team.
We’ve seen it this season with the team being in Europe, they’re playing every three or four days, so our lads have now got a taste of what that would be like, arguably in more challenging weather conditions.
The aim for our players is to eventually be in the senior squad, so they’ve seen a little bit of what that would be like in terms of the schedule out here. To play, recover, to maintain performance and also the travel aspect, they’ve had a little bit of it all and I’m sure it’s an experience that will help players who do feature in the senior squad in years to come.
I think they biggest thing that we’ve all learnt is that every small detail counts.
That can be small things that we do away from the pitch like the way you treat people in our environment, the way that you recover, how much rest you’re getting – it all really matters when it comes down to gameday.
All of that affects the quality of our play when the whistle sounds, and I think the boys have learnt that quickly. They’ve shown on this trip what incredible people they are, and myself and the staff here are really proud of how they have represented the Club here in India.
We really appreciate how well we’ve been looked after.
It’s been a really good tournament. We’ve been so well looked after by everyone here, whether that be at the hotel are here at Reliance Corporate Park on a matchday.
The boys have really enjoyed the football and the quality has been really good. We’re all hoping that it won’t be too long until we get another opportunity to come back to India.
