After seeing the lineups come out, most thought that we were about to witness a reincarnation of Nottingham Forest’s 5-0 thrashing over West Ham back in 2014, however, the night didn’t go that way and it was in fact West Ham who walked away with not just a victory, but their biggest away League Cup victory since 1967!
A miserable opening ten minutes made fans' heads have a wonder down looney lane, searching for an answer to the madness but academy product Joshua Ajala, slotted home twice to give us the lead, before the starting side slotted home two more to place us into the Round of 32.
Whilst tonight’s victory is sweet for the stats, it also sends out a positive and much-needed message for the fans, the players and likely Nuno himself.
News is circulating that players would like to exit, throwing their gym bags around and staying put. Well, tonight the badge won, not just West Ham. The Academy tonight stepped onto the field in a competitive tournament and turned over Southampton’s (practically) strongest side.
All academy producers: Finlay Herrick (20), Airidas Golambeckis (18), Ezra Mayers (19), Lewis Orford (20), Joshua Ajala (19) and former academy and current loanee Divine Mukasa (19) all played for the badge tonight. They carried the spirit of what they knew and aspired to strive to have when wearing the West Ham badge on their chest and it’s a grounding moment for the more senior and professional players.
For far too long West Ham have consistently had a good team… on paper, but on the pitch, it would almost never translate into results.
You can have a whole batch of good Oranges, but once one bad one touches the others, it causes the others to be rotten. West Ham needs players who want to play for West Ham, ones that truly want to.
Joël Veltman helped his rounding peers tonight by being an anchor and his start in Claret & Blue tonight was very impressive.
West Ham are set to take on Watford at Vicarage Road on Saturday where we set our sights on securing our first win in the Championship.
Draw details for Round 3 of the Carabao Cup will be released tomorrow.
