Will Greenidge is eagerly awaiting the return of competitive football as West Ham United U21s resume their Premier League 2 campaign at Everton on Friday.
Mark Robson’s development side have been out of competitive action since an impressive 3-0 victory against Feyenoord in the Premier League International Cup on November 15, but have made their preparations for their league return with friendlies against EFL League Two side Crawley Town, and Reading U21s.
The young Hammers continued their preparation for the season resumption with a behind-closed-doors friendly against Crawley Town five days before Christmas.
“It has been good to be back out there on the pitch.” Greenidge told whufc.com. “It was very beneficial for all of the boys and I think that we were all pleased to get some minutes in our legs.
"I think we actually surprised ourselves with how well we played at times. We've been calm and relaxed in possession, we weren’t taking many touches on the ball and the movement was really good."
After a disappointing start to the season, the Hammers recorded three straight victories before the mid-season break, and Greenidge is hoping that the Irons can continue their momentum after the break.
He continued: “The break came at a really bad time for us. We were starting to build some momentum with three wins on the bounce and we were starting to play really well. We have put in a lot of work during the break, we’ve trained hard and hopefully we’ll be ready to go against Everton.
“The aim is to continue our momentum. It’s important that we pick up some good result and we also want to put in some strong performances, just as we did before the break.”
The 20-year-old defender is determined to kick off 2023 with another victory, away to the Toffees, and help the young Hammers rise up the divison in Premier League 2.
“We can’t wait to get going again,” he added. "We are all frustrated with the way that we started the season and our job now is to put things right. We’re in and around the bottom of the league and that isn’t where we want to be.
“We feel that we are a much better team than our position in the table suggests and we feel that we should be higher. The reality is that we have made a poor start to the season and we can only look at ourselves and think about what we need to do to turn things around.
"We are excited for the second half of the season and our aim is to push ourselves up the league. We want to show everyone that we are far better than our current position suggests. We don’t belong near the bottom of the table.”
