Points were shared at Chadwell Heath on Saturday as United's juniors travelled to West Ham United's Academy.
In a very competitive game either team could have grabbed all three points if not for some excellent goalkeeping.
In a fairly even first half defences were well on top and in became a battle of the midfielders to create any real opportunity. With Joe Dudgeon out of action with a knee complaint and Scott Moffatt on the long-term injury list, Paul McGuinness had no option but to play two centre halves - Oliver Gill and Kenny Strickland - as fullbacks with Wooton and Brown in the middle. And West Ham got most of their joy down the United left side as both Stewart and Gill came under constant pressure. The tricky Stewart while good going forward, was sometimes wasteful with the ball and the United defence was unnecessarily put under pressure. One instance led to Gill receiving a yellow card on 36 minutes after obstruction. However, no team really looked like scoring in the first half.
Half time 0-0
In the second half United could have taken the lead in the opening moments when a cracking through ball from Matty James allowed Brandao to run at goal. However he tried to place the ball and the West Ham keeper made a decent save. Easy to say in hindsight....but Evandro should have blasted it! Both teams pushed on a little and Woods made two excellent saves to keep United in the game while Macheda brought out the best from the opposing keeper when he pushed a goal bound shot over the bar. McGuinness tried to force a result and made a couple of substitutions....Ajose for Brandao and Brady for Petrucci. The game then got a little 'testy' and some hard tackles were flying about resulting in yellow cards for James and Norwood within three minutes of each other just after the hour mark. James and Norwood were running the game now with James' tussle with the Hammers captain being a super contest, while Ollie Norwood was starting to impose himself with a good range of passing. With ten minutes to go United were clearly the stronger team and Tunnicliffe came on to replace Stewart. As the clock ran down it was West Ham who were happy to play for a draw as United continued to press.
The game finished as 0-0 and was probably a fair result.
United lined up:
1. Woods - excellent was again with positioning and three excellent saves
2. Strickland - decent in defence but his distribution going forward was poor
3. Gill - struggled, particularly in the first half
4. Brown - solid
5. Wooton - solid
6. James - good box to box performance and had a great battle with the Hammers captain
7. Norwood - excellent passing game in the second half
8. Petrucci - tidy but not a lot of penetration
9. Brandao - held the ball up well, should have scored, not a great understanding yet with Macheda
10. Macheda - great feet, control and classy display - wish he would release the ball quicker
11. Stewart - inconsistent - good when running at people but kept losing the ball
Subs:
12. Curran
13. Devlin
14. Ajose (9)
15. Brady (8)
16. Tunnicliffe (11)
