Terry Westley’s U23’s completed a remarkable second-half fightback to overcome Premier League 2 Title favorites Tottenham Hotspur and earn the youngsters’ a first-ever victory in Division One.
The lunch-time kick-off took place at The Tottenham Hotspur Training Centre in North London and saw the hosts field an impressive line-up that boasted some of the game’s brightest prospects.
Wayne Burnett’s side included the likes of England U19 star Marcus Edwards, captain Joe Pritchard and exciting young attacker Dylan Duncan.
Whereas, there were two changes to our side that overcame Swindon Town in The Checkatrade Trophy last week, as Joe Powell and Dan Kemp replaced Domingos Quina and Sead Haksabanovic, who has joined up with the first-team.
It would be the hosts that made a faster start on Hotspur way with star man Edwards teeing up Shilow Tracey to curl a shot just wide. Meanwhile, at the other end Spanish striker Antonio Martinez, who spent his pre-season with Slaven Bilic’s first-team in Continental Europe, could not convert past Brandon Austin after capitalizing on a defensive error to get through.
However, the former Valencia man would soon be made to regret his miss as Spurs took the lead through Dylan Duncan.
Skipper Joe Pritchard picked out Will Miller with a terrific ball on the left, who fashioned a cross to midfielder Shilow Tracey. The 19-year-old held the ball up fantastically to tee up Duncan to guide the ball into Nathan Trott’s bottom right-hand corner.
The home side, who tragically lost manager Ugo Ehiogu in April, soon doubled their lead via the man that Mauricio Pochettino described as “The next Messi” in Marcus Edwards.
The 18-year-old was tripped by Hammers’ defender Tunji Akinola in the area and the referee pointed to the spot, Edwards duly stroked the penalty into the back of the net to put his side into a very strong position heading into the break.
The start of the second period would bring what can be described as chaos in the Spurs box, as we went from two goals behind to a goal in front in the space of 18 minutes.
Westley’s boys first struck just four minutes into the second period with Dan Kemp, the man who scored the winner at The County Ground, tapped in from a Vashon Neufville delivery to pull a goal back.
Just seven minutes later, our starlets had drawn level through a wonder strike from one of the brightest prospects at the club, Nathan Holland. The winger received a pass from skipper Moses Makasi on the left and turned to unleash a tantalizing effort that curled into the very top corner of the Spurs net and added to his repertoire of superb PL2 goals to square the tie up.
Former Gillingham loanee Josh Pask is not known for his goal-scoring ability, but he was about to get the winner in a tasty London Derby with the best part of 30 minutes remaining.
Neuville’s wide delivery was met by Akinola, who knocked the ball down perfectly for Pask to fire a low volley into the near corner. The young Hammers would withstand late pressure from the hosts to claim the three points after looking doomed to defeat at half-time.
Terry Westley joked after the game: “You don’t want to know what I said to the boys at half-time”. Nevertheless, whatever he did say worked as the stunning comeback took our U23’s to fourth in The PL2 Division One Table.
Whereas, Spurs are yet to register their first point of the season after yesterday’s loss added to their opening day defeat to Sunderland.
Next up for The Lilywhites is the visit of Manchester United at Stevenage’s Lamex Stadium, with the Hammers’ starlets facing off with Swansea City at The Chigwell Construction Stadium on Sunday.
The two teams will meet again in a matter of days in a Premier League 2 International Cup tie at The Lamex on Thursday 31 August. So, will it be Derby revenge for Spurs, or will cheers of “Tottenham Hotspur it’s happened again” continue to ring around East London?
Hammer of the Match: Nathan Holland