Premier U-21 League, Division 1, 2014-15
             Rush Green Stadium, Dagenham, Essex
               Friday 9th January 2015, 7pm.

               WEST HAM     v     SPURS 
             (Claret/Blue)     (White/Blue)
                4-2-3-1           4-3-3

                 1(1)              3(1)

           Raphael Spiegel  1 Jordan Archer
                 Alex Pike  2 DeAndre Yedlin
                Lewis Page  3 Connor Ogilvie
                Amos Nasha  4 Grant Ward
               Reece Burke  5 Dominic Ball
              Reece Oxford  6 Bongani Khumalo(C)
    Djair Parfitt-Williams  7 William Miller
           Danny Whitehead  8 Harry Winks
             Elliot Lee(C)  9 Daniel Akindayini
            Ravel Morrison 10 Joshua Onomah
            Keiran Sadlier 11 Nathan Oduwa

              Moses Makasi 12 Alex McQueen
                (10)66Mins    (2)60Mins
                 Sam Howes 13 Jonathan Miles
             Blair Turgott 14 Emmanuel Sonupe
                (11)76Mins    (7)69Mins
                 Dan Potts 15 Filip Lesniak
                              (8)68Mins
         Sebastian Lletget 16 Kenneth McEvoy
                 (9)46Mins

Scorers:-
          Morrison 37         Ward 21, 90+6
                              Winks 56

Booked:-
          Lee 44(Foul)        Winks 35(Late)
          Page 80(Foul)

Coaches:-
          S. Potts            U. Ehiogu 

I missed the opening minutes of this match which was held on Friday evening which was cool but blustery. There was a good sized crowd to watch, with cars parked in the overspill field, where I saw one stuck in the mud. The wind played its part in the game as it blew in over the North end. Spurs beat the hosts in the opening fixture of the league at Stevenage 2-1 with goals from Akindayini and Ceballos.

Spurs lined up with Archer in goal, behind Khumalo and Ball with Yedlin making his first start for his new club at right back and Ogilvie on the left. Winks was joined in midfield by Onomah (who was given a place on the subs' bench at Burnley on Monday evening), and Ward, who was back from his loan spell with Chicago Fire. Akindayini led the line with Miller to his right and Oduwa on his left. McEvoy (on loan at Peterbrough) was on the bench.

Spurs kicked off attacking the South end with the wind at their back. It proved to be another tight game with few chances as in the previous meeting. Miller put in a cross from a good ball by Onomah, but Akindayini could not reach it. Spurs took the lead following a foul on the edge of the area. Ward took the free kick which deflected off the wall to wrong foot Spiegel in the Irons' goal.

From a corner Oxford fired wide while Parfitt-Williams fired over from a good position. Having been warned by the referee for a late tackle to prevent a break, Winks was booked for another late challenge minutes later. Some of the Hammers' crosses were hit high into the area to catch the wind making defending difficult. This led to their equaliser as a cross caught by the wind dropped kindly for Morrison to hit a waist high volley back across the goal into the far side. It was a well struck effort from their problematic player.

Lee took “one for the team” when he stopped Onomah breaking through on a counter attack. Spiegel saved from Ward when he latched onto Miller's cross as the half finished.

West Ham made one change for the start of the second half which began as the first finished. Akindayini had a chance but he hit a weak effort that was easily saved. Page got forward to fire wide before that wind had a hand in Spurs' second goal. A high ball came in from the right and Spiegel misjudged the flight of the ball. Akindayini was able to lay it off for Winks to drill home.

McQueen replaced Yedlin at right back before Onomah fired wide and Archer had to make a double save when Parfitt-Williams was played in through the right channel and when the ball rebounded to Morrison he also saved his effort. That was the last contribution by Morrison who was replaced just before Lesniak came on for Winks to strengthen the defence as Spurs sought to secure all three points. Whitehead fired wide before Miller gave way to Sonupe.

Lletget turned the ball wide when a corner was not cleared. When Sonupe got past Page down the right the full back fouled him and went into the ref's book. Akindayini got free on the left and whipped in a low cross which just avoided Sonupe attacking the far post.

Nasha had his effort saved by Archer from a cross by Parfitt-Williams as the game reached 90 minutes. In added time, Spurs won a free kick on the edge of the area when Oduwa was fouled and Ward stepped up for a repeat of his first goal. His kick was deflected off the wall to beat the keeper with less than a minute left. Just before this Oduwa had the ball in the corner and was keeping it away from two defenders before one of them had a swipe at him. He missed but the ref gave a free kick for the intention.

This was another tight game with few chances but Spurs had the better of the second half producing more chances than the home side converting two of them to make it look good. Ward had a good game in midfield while it looks like it will take a little while for Yedlin to adapt to the English game.

The win moves Spurs to the top of the table a point clear of Manchester City who had beaten Chelsea 3-2 the day before.

Ray

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