West Ham United’s under-21s moved five points clear of Premier League 2’s relegation zone on Monday night with a 5-0 win away at Wolverhampton Wanderers.
It was Mark Robson’s side’s first match since losing 5-1 at home to Manchester City at the start of the month, a game where winger Maxwel Cornet played his first game in over five months following a calf injury.
West Ham went into the game 11th in the 14-team table, level on points with Wolves in tenth and only behind them on two goals via goal difference. However, following the result, the Hammers climbed up to tenth with a thumping victory.
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The turning point in the match came in the 18th minute when Wolves were reduced to ten men at the Aggborough Stadium when goalkeeper Palmi Arinbjornsson was shown a straight red card when catching a cross outside of the penalty area and fouling Kamarai Swyer, when he was through on goal.
However, Wolves did not have a goalkeeper on the bench, meaning for just over 70 minutes of the match, defender Kam Kandola was introduced off the bench and played as a makeshift goalkeeper. Seconds after coming on, Kandola did save Swyer's penalty kick.
Kandola put West Ham 1-0 up less than ten minutes after coming on. Regan Clayton’s in-swinging corner into a crowded penalty area landed at Kandola, whose attempted punch away saw him punch the ball into his own net.
Nine minutes later, Clayton got himself on the scoresheet with a brilliant finish to round off a good team move from just outside of the penalty area.
West Ham got their third shortly after the hour mark in more unusual circumstances. Keenan Appiah-Forson’s cross was caught by Kandola, but Wolves defender Christian Marques clattered into his teammate, leading to the ball being fumbled into his own net.
Midfielder Lewis Orford, who scored in West Ham’s under-18s win over West Bromwich Albion on Saturday, was on target again in the West Midlands just over 48 hours later in the closing stages, coming off the bench, driving towards goal and netting with a superb finish.
Archie Woods then added a late fifth, hitting a dipping free-kick over the wall to net his first goal for the under-21s.
West Ham’s under-21s were without striker Divin Mubama (England Under-19s), goalkeeper and captain Krisztian Hegyi (Hungary), defender Ollie Scarles (England Under-19s), winger Armstrong Okoflex (Republic of Ireland Under-21s) and forward Callum Marshall (Northern Ireland Under-19s) for the game due to being on international duty with their respective countries.
As a result, first-team goalkeeper Joseph Anang dropped down to the under-21s squad and played the duration as captain to help keep a clean sheet.
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