Archie Woods believes West Ham United U21s' trip to Walsall represents a great opportunity for the young Hammers.
The development team will get their 2022/23 Papa John’s Trophy campaign underway against the Saddlers at the Poundland Bescot Stadium on Tuesday evening, with the Hammers eager to prove themselves against the EFL League Two opposition.
The trip to play Walsall will be the first of three Southern Division Group C matches the U21s will play in the coming weeks, all against EFL opponents, and Woods thinks the first match will give the Irons a good idea of their current ability and quality.
“We’re looking forward to facing Walsall,” the midfielder told whufc.com. “These are the sort of games you want to play in, to see where you are as an individual player but also as a team. League football is another game altogether and you want to see if you can play up to their standard.
“Everyone knows this is a big game for us. It’s a really important one for us and we need to focus, because it’s a great opportunity to show the coaches that we can do it at that level.
“We all know it will be a physical game. It will be really different to what we play in the U21s on a weekly basis. We need to adapt to that type of football and show what we can do. It’s a good experience for us and we want to do well in the Papa John’s Trophy, and that can start with this game.”
The U21s head into the Papa Johns’ Trophy match on the back of a frustrating home Premier League 2 defeat at the hands of Everton.
Woods started and played 89 minutes of Saturday’s fixture, in which the Hammers went down to ten men early in the second half. Despite the loss, the 18-year-old feels there were positives to take.
“We started bright against Everton. In the opening 20 minutes, I thought we played quite well and played some good football, but the final ball let us down a bit.
“It was a mistake for their first goal and then we got the red card so early in the second half, which killed the game. We got back into it through hard work and Pierre hit a great strike, but we conceded again so quickly after.
“I think the boys worked so hard in the Everton game but we just need to improve as a group and cut out the mistakes.”
Woods was one of five starters in the U21s side this past weekend who featured regularly for the U18s last season, alongside Regan Clayton, Michael Forbes, George Earthy and Divin Mubama.
The midfielder says the group knows they have to learn quickly to get fully acquainted with the standards required at U21s level.
He added: “We started the game against Everton with Divin and Regan, Michael, me and George in the starting XI, which shows we have a young group here which is learning as we go.
“We need to get used to this level and keep getting better. With that, I’m sure we’ll get games where the luck is with us and we can get some good performances.”
