Favour Fawunmi was delighted to play a key role in West Ham United U18s' return to winning ways against Brighton & Hove Albion.
Playing in the main centre-forward position, Fawunmi netted twice in a 5-0 win over the Seagulls at the weekend, keeping the Hammers 100 per cent record in league in tact.
Billy Bates, Daniel Rigge and Blaise Uwandji also got on the score-sheet in a perfect outing for the Irons.
“It’s a fantastic result for us,” he told whufc.com. “It’s a tough place to come so to win so convincingly is a testament to this team.
“It feels good to contribute, whether that’s goals or assists, and fortunately I scored twice today which is great for me. It was difficult for us at times in the first half, but the boys stood strong. It’s been a great day for me and for the team.”
Despite usually being deployed on the wing, Fawunmi started the match in the striker position, a role change that paid dividends.
“It’s not where I usually play,” he smiled. “You have to learn to adapt quickly, the manager put me in that position to do a job and I had to fulfil that.
“I have played a couple of different positions for this team already so it’s something I took in my stride today and it’s something I really enjoyed. It’s good to be versatile and luckily I helped the team by scoring twice.”
Both of Fawunmi’s goals came as a result of robbing the Brighton defence of possession and the attacker was keen to point out the benefits of his side’s approach to the match.
He evaluated: “The press is a part of our identity, that’s just West Ham U18s. We always like to work hard and to put the opposition under pressure. Kevin Keen is always on at us about it, we want to press high and to play at a high intensity.
“It’s something we work on in training all the time and it’s really nice to score a goal as a result of what we’ve worked on in training. I have to give my teammates credit too. Ryan Battrum pressed with me for my first goal, and although he didn’t touch the ball his press was like an assist!”
After a fantastic start to the 2022/23 season, Fawunmi was full of praise for the U18s side, but says they must continue to put in similar performances every week.
He concluded: “It’s been a great start to the season. The team is playing really well and we now need to keep this form going. We have a really tough game next week against Sunderland but we’ll go there full of belief and looking to win the match.”
