U21 Cup Final Success Against Hull Virtually Unreported

Terry Westley's U21 West Ham United side beat Hull City in the U21 Premier League Cup final following a tense return leg which saw a late late goal scored in normal time by the home side cancel out the slender 1-0 lead Hammers had held from the first leg at the Boleyn. This tight match was eventually resolved after extra time with a 3-5 penalty shoot out victory, with Raphael Spiegel performing wonders in the Hammers goal to deny Hull's hopes of winning the trophy. The ever maturing Martin Samuelson cooly tucked away the penalty that saw his side win a keenly contested match that has had virtually no press coverage, even our old pals at the Beeb don't mention it! The young players who featured in this match weren't just there to make up the numbers, many will hope to break in to Slaven Billic's first team in the near future and from what was on show, the future is promising. Spiegel, Byram, Page, Rice (Hector-Ingram 100), Henry, Oxford (c), Diangana (Hendrie 68), Makasia, Samuelsen, Browne, Parfitt-Williams (Pike 68). Subs: Howes, Dobson were all in the squad. Spiegel, Byram, Page, Henry, Oxford, Parfitt-Williams and Samuelson could all get in to the first team in the Barclays Premier League, it will be interesting to see how they are integrated, as hope of making the first team or at least the squad is what drives these youngsters on, perhaps the Summer friendlies will present an ideal opportunity for them to be given a run out, the 6ft 5ins tall Spiegel is under contract at West Ham until 2018 so is clearly a part of tSlaven's future plans and is fighting with Darren Randolph and Sam Howes to take Adrian’s number one spot in the future. Well done lads- Ed