Colchester United lose against West Ham U21s in what was a good test against a strong side, the U’s will leave the ground disappointed as they deserved to come away with something in a game where they dominated the chances.
In the tenth minute West Ham took the lead after the U’s had the majority of the ball in the opening minutes. A quick break for the visitors allowed them down the left-hand side, with the attacker opening his body up and having a shot from a tight angle, the shot beat Sam Hornby and trickled into the bottom right corner, undoing all of the U’s hard work in the opening stages.
In the fifteenth minute the U’s went close to an equaliser with John Akinde showing his strength and beating his man despite being fouled the whole time, he finds a brilliant ball through to Donell Thomas but the West Ham ‘keeper was out quickly to close off the angles for the young striker and saved his shot well.
West Ham started to turn the screw at the twenty-minute mark and were putting a lot of pressure on the back three and Sam Hornby, in the twenty-third minute they won the ball high up the pitch and worked their way in for a shot, it was blocked well and the U’s dealt with the resulting corner well.
In the twenty-ninth minute West Ham worked their way into a brilliant position and a lovely through ball gave them a one-on-one opportunity, their number nine had all the time in the world to make his decision which may have worked against him as the shot was tame and Hornby dealt with it easily.
At half time West Ham had their noses in front and played some great football for the bulk of the first half, however the U’s did come into their own in the last ten minutes of the first half with some lovely play. There was a moment where the U’s played the ball around brilliantly in the own half before Will Greenidge hit a first time pass with the outside of the boot pass towards Alex Newby who was off racing down the right-hand side, he took the ball in his stride excellently before putting a ball into the box which was dealt with well by the visiting defender. The ball went out for a corner which resulted in nothing for the U’s.
The U’s started the second half much like the first, on the front foot, two minutes after the break some nice interplay between Jayden Fevrier and Donell Thomas gave John Akinde some space in the box, when he received the ball, his shot was well blocked resulting in a corner. It was a poor ball in but the U’s retained possession and put it back into the danger area, there was a bit of a scramble, and the ball was eventually cleared off the line.
The pace of the game slowed down in the last twenty minutes with neither side being able to impose themselves as much as they did in the opening stages of each half, however in the seventy-eighth minute Sam Hornby was called upon to stop the visitors doubling their lead. The ball was given away by the U’s in the middle of the pitch and West Ham broke with both strikers combining to create space for a shot. The attempt was aimed at Hornby’s far side and the shot stopper dived across brilliantly to do exactly that.
In the eighty-fourth minute the U’s went agonisingly close to an equaliser, Fevrier picked the ball up, cut inside and let fly, his shot took a slight deflection onto the post and the spin on the ball made it bounce across the face of goal and off for a corner.
That was the last of the chances and the U's suffered their first defeat of preseason.
Starting XI:
Sam Hornby, Ronny Nelson, Will Greenidge, Al-Amin Kazeem, Jayden Fevrier, Marley Marshall Miranda (Gene Kennedy), Matt Jay, Chay Cooper, John Akinde, Donell Thomas (Frankie Terry)