Oliver Scarles admitted his West Ham debut was “surreal” after the 16-year-old stole the present in a 3-0 win over Romanian facet FCSB in Bucharest.
Two targets from Pablo Fornals and a deflected effort from one other teenage debutant, Divin Mubama, ensured the Hammers – already by to the final 16 of the Europa Conference League – grew to become the primary group within the competitors to win all six of their group-stage matches.
Manager David Moyes was capable of give 14 senior gamers, together with Declan Rice, Jarrod Bowen, Kurt Zouma and Michail Antonio, the evening off.
Yet it was nonetheless a mature efficiency from a line-up together with first appearances for midfielder Scarles and homegrown striker Mubama, 18, in addition to rookie substitutes Freddie Potts, Keenan Appiah-Forson, Kamarai Swyer and Kaelan Casey.
Scarles, who grew to become West Ham’s sixth-youngest participant, advised BT Sport: “It was just a surreal experience, just to make my debut and be with these boys.
“Yesterday and today has been an amazing experience and something you dream of.
“It was Wednesday morning when we’d done the first training session and (Moyes) sent a few of my lot to do finishing practice. Then we had the 11 starting in positional practice and I was in that, and my heart dropped!
“I was like ‘oh my god, I’m starting’. It was mental.”
Fornals opened the scoring 5 minutes earlier than half-time when he let Ben Johnson’s lengthy ball bounce in entrance of him on to his left foot earlier than lashing dwelling an excellent first-time end.
Mubama capped his memorable evening when he scored with a header, albeit by way of a deflection off Joyskim Dawa which noticed it logged as an personal aim.
The third got here fittingly from one among many harmful crosses from Scarles, which goalkeeper Stefan Tarnovanu palmed straight to Fornals who crashed the free ball into the online.
Spanish midfielder Fornals has been out and in of the facet for Premier League matches this season, however as one of many senior professionals on present he made some extent to Moyes together with his well-taken brace.
“We were already qualified, but we came here for a difficult game with a lot of kids, so we should be really happy and grateful that the ‘Academy of Football’ is still supporting the first team,” Moyes advised BT Sport.
“We could see from the first moment that Divin and Ollie were playing really well. We saw how Divin celebrated the goal, he was buzzing and his family will be buzzing at home.
“Ollie played a really good game as well. This academy never stops bringing players through
“Now the players who are here are not playing as much as we would like, but we came here to do our best. This was was our chance and it’s important for the other players to know we want to play just as much.”
For Moyes consideration now turns again to making an attempt to climb the Premier League, however he was capable of get pleasure from a vastly passable evening for the membership.
He mentioned: “I hope we’re getting future pressure on the boys in the first team. All the boys played really well tonight. It was a thoroughly deserved victory and we could have scored more goals.
“I thought Ollie Scarles played exceptionally well. Divin got a goal, although it’s classed as an own goal, but he’s a young centre-forward and you could see what it meant for him to score a goal.
“I think we have played well at times this season, and tonight was another.”
Source: www.impartial.co.uk