West Ham United U21s lead coach Mark Robson was pleased with his side’s performance and efforts, as the development side made a positive step towards the resumption of their 2022/23 season with a 4-2 win over Reading.
The young Hammers twice fought back to emerge victorious against the Royals; Gideon Kodua and Callum Marshall were both on the scoresheet whilst Regan Clayton scored twice.
The behind-closed-doors friendly was organised as part of the U21s’ preparation for the resumption of their 2022/23 campaign, with the Irons back in Premier League 2 action at Everton on 6 January.
Robson discussed the positive performance against Reading, the team’s preparation for Everton and Divin Mubama’s first team debut against Arsenal on Boxing Day.
It was really important for us to get more minutes under our belt.
We’ve had two friendlies now in the last week, Crawley last week, and Reading today. It was a tough test for us. We have a couple of players coming back from injuries so it’s especially important to get some minutes into their legs.
Everyone is at a different place, some of the lads have been with the first team, others have been with the U18s, and the rest have been with us, so we just want to make sure everyone is where we want them to be. It was a fantastic runout today. Reading were a tough opponent but in the end we dealt with it really well.
I’m really happy with where the players are at.
Before the break a few of the younger lads were playing a lot of us and they’ve been able to continue their momentum with the U18s. They’re looking sharp and match fit, whereas some of the older boys hadn’t played a match for over a month before Crawley.
It was important to get a second friendly in just to build the match fitness up a little bit more. We’ve got our first league match back against Everton next Friday so hopefully we’ll have enough in the bank to hit the ground running. We want to have a really strong end to the season.
We’re all really pleased for Divin Mubama.
It was a fantastic moment to see Divin come on against Arsenal, and everybody involved in making it happen deserves a lot of credit. It’s fantastic to see a young player get an opportunity to make their Premier League debut.
He got on for the last few minutes and that’s something no one can take away from him. It just goes to show that he must be doing all of the right things and that he’s performing well in first team training.
He’s earned that debut and we’re all delighted for him. He has demonstrated that the pathway is there and we’re hopeful that he’ll get some more opportunities over the next year or so.
