U18 Preview: West Ham vs Saints
Southampton’s youngsters will look to build on their win in midweek, with a visit to West Ham United on Saturday in the Under-18s Premier League.
West Ham vs Saints
Under-18s Premier League
Little Heath Sports Centre
Saturday 1st May, 11am BST
It was a game which wasn’t short of entertainment on Tuesday afternoon when Saints travelled to Reading.
Both sides scored in the opening five minutes, Jahmari Clarke grabbing the opener for the Royals on two minutes before Jem Hewlett equalised just three minutes later.
Saints went on to turn the screw; Fedel Ross-Lang getting his first of the afternoon before Ramello Mitchell made it 3-1 20 minutes from time.
Reading hit back with Hamid Abdul-Salam on 75 minutes, before Ross-Lang’s second of the afternoon made sure of the victory three minutes from time.
West Ham’s latest fixture was equally as fruitful when it came to goalmouth action as they faced Norwich City on Saturday.
Despite the Hammers taking the lead through George Earthy inside the first ten minutes, Norwich struck three times before the half-hour mark to turn the game on its head.
But West Ham fought back, Earthy with his second of the game on 32 minutes before Remy Coddington saved a point 20 minutes from the end.
Three points for Saints would see them go two points above Leicester in 12th, whilst a win for West Ham could see them close the gap on 9th placed West Brom to just five points.
A lively encounter featuring Saturday’s two sides was played out at Snows Stadium at the start of March.
West Ham took the lead after just seven minutes as striker Divin Mubama rolled home from the penalty spot.
Saints from then on were the dominant side as efforts from Luke Pearce, Riley Wright and Lewis Payne were kept out by an impressive Kristjan Hegyi.
The latter of the three Saints players would rescue a point for his side in the dying seconds, following up Will Tizzard’s weighted pass after some good closing down play.
