Most of us are still enjoying the post-victory buzz from West Ham’s performance at the London Stadium at the weekend. The 4-1 victory over Ipswich Town saw The Hammers make real progress with a first home win. The Satisfaction Lopetegui and the players must have got from the victory is enormous: All the time in player interviews we have been told as fans to be patient. It was nice to receive a payback for all of our nail chewing over the first part of the season.
Away from London Stadium, and out on loan this year, young Hammer George Earthy made a welcome return from injury and appeared recovered from his ankle problem in Bristol City’s 1-1 draw against Cardiff City. This was an important milestone for George as he’d been out since August. Earthy has also been called up to the England development squad (formerly U20’s)along with Kaelan Casey for the coming matches against Czechia and Italy with former Hammers coach Paul Nevin at the helm.
Elsewhere, Freddie Potts played his third 90 minutes in the Championship for Portsmouth who drew 1-1 against Oxford United. Callum Marshall continued his run on loan to Huddersfield, with some good attempts on goal as the Terriers ran out two nil winners in league one against Barnsley.
Good to see all three of these young irons getting game time: Often when loaned out last year several Hammers’ academy players struggled for game time. The key to their development and progression both in terms of fitness and technical ability is to keep playing. Several of West Ham’s future starlets seem to be heading in the right direction.
Worth highlighting also that Fin Herrick and Lewis Orford are both selected for the u19’s England Squad and travel to Spain for a tournament this week and games against Portugal, Netherlands and France. Great to see several of our ‘future jewels’ getting game time for loan clubs and recognition of hard work with calls from the national teams. Now we just need to keep hold of them and hope they keep up their improvement towards regular football for the Irons’ senior squad.
Full details of every academy loanee and their record so far this season is available on the club web site at whufc.com