West Ham’s U23s fell to a disappointing 4-2 defeat on the South Coast after conceding four goals in just 23 second-half-minutes at The Amex Elite Performance Centre.
Having dismantled Arsenal with consummate ease on Monday night, West Ham arrived in Brighton full of confidence to face Simon Rusk’s team who, having won their opening game against Derby thanks to goals from Cameron Peupion and Evan Ferguson, would also be keen to retain their 100% start.
There would be enforced changes for both teams as Brighton were without the suspended James Furlong who would be replaced by Casper Nilsson as Gary Dicker and Todd Miller were also brought into the side. And West Ham made four changes with first-teamers Ben Johnson, Conor Coventry, Manuel Lanzini and Andriy Yarmolenko all making way to be replaced by Keenan Forson, Freddie Potts, Bernardo Rosa and Dan Chesters.
Both sides lined up in a 4231 shape from the start and as the game got underway it was The Hammers that took control of the opening exchanges. It took just two minutes for them to get a first genuine sight at goal as Armstrong Oko-Flex’s cross picked out Bernardo Rosa free inside the box but unable to make clean contact, the Brazilian fired his shot over the bar.
West Ham pressed with real enthusiasm early on, just as they did against Arsenal, and Brighton couldn’t settle at all. Constantly rushed in possession, The Seagulls found themselves turning the ball over in their own half under the pressure applied by West Ham.
And that early pressure would finally tell when Jamal Baptiste played a lovely ball over the top of the Brighton defence to pick out the overlapping run of Harrison Ashby. The Scot controlled well and looped the ball up into the near-post area for Mipo Odubeko to come steaming onto. He smashed the ball into the near-post on the volley. Great finish; 1-0.
West Ham had control of the game in the period following Odubeko’s goal but were unable to create any chances of note until a lightning-quick transition in the 31st minute would see Oko-Flex racing away on goal. After watching the Irish winger’s performance earlier in the week you would be forgiven for having high expectations but Oko-Flex wasn’t able to match them here. Instead he composed himself looking to pick out the top corner but placed his shot just high and wide.
Brighton then came into the game and finished the half strongly as Marc Leonard and Todd Miller both forced good saves out of Krisztián Hegyi.
At half-time, it was clear to see that West Ham were missing tempo-dictator Conor Coventry in midfield and despite strong performances from Oko-Flex, Odubeko, Ashby and Aji Alese, they had perhaps lacked a little bit of creative spark in the final-third.
One of the issues with watching a game on a YouTube stream is that you can encounter all kinds of technical difficulties and as I returned for the start of the second half, I managed to tip a pint glass of water over my phone and laptop… Mild disaster but having retrieved the pair quickly and applied a lengthy bit of hairdryer treatment to both (and myself for being so foolish), I was ready to go– About ten minutes late to the football.
And I hit the game just as it started to descend into madness with Ed Turns’ equalising goal for Brighton.
The goal came from a corner, Brighton getting the first contact (never, ever let this happen) and flicking the ball on to find Turns at the back stick. Hegyi jumped to make himself big and Turns, almost cheekily, just rolled it underneath him and into the back of the net. 1-1.
Suddenly the chances were flowing for Brighton. Leonard went close just minutes after the equaliser and West Ham made a change in an attempt to reset the press and regain some control: Thierry Nevers on for Forson. It didn’t work.
Two minutes after the change, Brighton were through again. This time second-half-substitute Ferguson latching onto Cameron Peupion’s square-ball and only being stopped in his tracks by a remarkable sliding challenge from Baptiste. Mooro would’ve been proud of that one.
Well at least for a few minutes… Before Miller would spin in behind Ashby down Brighton’s left and Ashby, despairingly, would try to recreate Baptiste’s challenge from moments earlier. An admirable attempt, Asby got none of the ball and all of the man making for the easiest penalty decision of Adrian Quelch’s life. Ferguson crashed the penalty in off the underside of the bar, 2-1.
And West Ham then went from having lost control to completely falling apart. It was only a minute or so later that Ashby doubled-down on his first mistake and was caught miles upfield as the ball was lost in the centre. Rosa did try to cover the right-back space but there was no catching Miller who cut it back to Leonard and after a quick dummy to drop Alese he slotted home. Blink and you miss it; 3-1.
Brighton then went close another couple of times and could quite easily have made it 4-1 within moments of the restart as Miller again found space on the left only to be denied by Hegyi who pulled out another good save to stop Dicker’s effort from the resultant corner.
West Ham were absolutely all over the shop now. And in an utterly hapless few minutes for Ashby and Baptiste, Miller saw clear grass ahead of him again as he picked the ball up on the left. He ran all the way through on goal but this time crashed his shot over the bar.
Finally West Ham responded and it was the star of the show from Monday that sparked them back into life. Oko-Flex chased down a lost cause by the corner flag, kept the ball in and set it back to Rosa. His cross found Nevers who brought the ball down beautifully off his chest and aimed for the bottom corner only for his shot to be blocked by the flying figure of Brighton goalscorer, Ed Turns.
It was a heroic goal-saving intervention from the eighteen year-old centre-half but Nevers was not to be denied. Just moments later, Chesters won the ball wide on the left and Rosa drove infield to set up Nevers who beat his man with a quick feint and absolutely thundered a shot into the back of the net from 25 yards. It was a marvellous goal, his second from two substitute appearances as he stakes a strong claim for a starting spot.
But there would be no magical turnaround. Any momentum West Ham might have gained from Nevers’ strike was interrupted by a number of substitutions from both sides and the fact that Brighton would swiftly respond with an astoundingly simple fourth. Ashby was caught a few yards too high again as the ball turned over from a goal-kick and Baptiste horribly shirked a challenge with Marcus Ifill to allow the Brighton substitute to coast through the centre of the West Ham defence and slide a ball across to Leonard who would finish wonderfully into the bottom corner past Hegyi; 4-2 – Game over.
And that was that. What had begun promisingly as West Ham maintained their high-press from Monday and had Brighton struggling for rhythm through most of the first 45 would end with a passage of extremely limp defending from the backline and the concession of a fourth goal in 23 minutes.
All in all, it was a disappointing outcome as the young Hammers failed to prove that they could hit the same heights without the help of the senior players that featured against Arsenal. The midfield lacked authority throughout as Potts and Forson couldn’t quite fill the gaps left by Coventry and Lanzini. And after a promising first half, Ashby would return to the kind of erratic defending that left me a little underwhelmed in the first game. Baptiste and Alese were excellent for much of this one but it seemed the frustration of the game getting away from West Ham really affected Baptiste as he sought to dribble when it wasn’t on and lost the ball several times after Brighton’s third.
There are reasons to be positive though.
Oko-Flex may have faded in the second half but he was one of West Ham’s bright sparks overall and was involved in most things that went well. And Thierry Nevers’ wonderful finish off the bench was real cause for excitement – He has only gotten 38 minutes plus stoppage time in a West Ham shirt so far and yet both times he has come on looking like he has a point to prove. He will be more than pleased to have come away with goals from both cameo appearances.
Player ratings: Hegyi 6, Ashby 5, Baptiste 5, Alese 6, Masuaku 6, Potts 5, Forson 5, Chesters 6, Rosa 6, Oko-Flex 6, Odubeko 7; Nevers 8, Diallo N/A
Jack Elderton 