Daniel Cummings finally made his first start for West Ham United’s Under-21s in the Wednesday night clash with Sporting Lisbon, five months after joining the Premier League side from Celtic.
Sporting director Mark Noble talked up Cummings’ arrival back in July, describing the teenager as ‘a young, talented player, and the sort of player I love’.
Throughout his first half-season this side of Hadrian’s Wall, though, the West Ham United supporters have had precious few chances to see why Noble and co rate the Scotland youth star so highly.
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Cummings waited until October to make his Hammers debut following a shoulder injury which had curtailed his hopes of an immediate impact. A further two months later down the line, the former Celtic kid started a match for the very first time.
Daniel Cummings played 64 minutes as Sporting beat West Ham United
After a 4-0 shellacking by Athletic Bilbao in their first match of the Premier League International Cup campaign, West Ham suffered a narrow 2-1 defeat by Sporting Lisbon’s B team in Dagenham.
Greg Lincoln was without Ezra Mayers, Airidas Golambeckis, Callum Marshall, Mohamadou Kante and George Earthy. All of whom will be hoping to be involved in the squad when West Ham’s first-team host Manchester City on Saturday.
Earthy is sending Nuno Espirito Santo a message, in particular, with a series of dazzling displays for the reserves.
But a fierce strike from the stand-in skipper against Sporting – a big boost for his confidence after Stevenage ended Lewis Orford’s loan spell ahead of schedule – and a first start for Cummings ensured that this was not an evening entirely devoid of positives.
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