Match report: West Ham 1-3 Arsenal U-18s

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WHAT HAPPENED

Our under-18s booked their place in the quarter-finals of the FA Youth Cup on Friday night as they ran out 3-1 winners over West Ham United.

Omari Hutchinson delivered an outstanding individual performance, scoring twice, while Miguel Azeez starred in midfield less than 24 hours after being named in our Europa League squad in Prague.

Azeez and Jack Henry-Francis took control of the midfield early on, and that set the tone for an exciting attacking performance from start to finish.

But for all of our early possession, our opener arrived through a blistering counter-attack, and in some style too.

Zane Monlouis switched play to the right wing where Brooke Norton-Cuffy and Marcelo Flores combined, before Omari Hutchinson picked up the ball in the final third and fired into the bottom corner.

Ken Gillard would have asked for more of the same from his side in the second half, and just three minutes after the restart we doubled our advantage through Khayon Edwards.

Once again, Hutchinson cut inside from the right wing and rattled the near post with a driven effort, but Edwards was on hand to convert the rebound with an instinctive falling finish.

Hutchinson then went on to strike the post once more after spinning away from his marker, before Edwards had a golden opportunity to double his tally on the night, only to fire wide from close range.

We weren’t done there, though, and as Hutchinson broke free down the left wing and charged into the penalty area, Jamal Baptiste was forced into bringing our winger down and was shown a straight red card.

Hutchinson stepped up and made no mistake from 12 yards, firing into the bottom left corner.

The hosts went on to pull one back through Divin Mubama, who pounced on a sloppy pass from Ovie Ejeheri, but it proved to be nothing more than a consolation goal as we closed the game out with maturity and composure.