Relegation was confirmed for Nick Haycock’s Development Squad after falling to defeat at the hands of Everton. West Ham were made to rue their missed chances and curse their luck and the disappointing nature of the result was clearly evident on the pained faces of the youngsters as they came off at the end.
There was an air of nervousness, both amongst the players and the supporters, as the game got underway. A scrappy early affair was typical of a relegation dogfight with both teams striving to stay afloat. West Ham edged the early proceedings though and Jordan Brown had two glorious chances to put us ahead; after driving a shot narrowly wide, he perhaps should have done better with an unmarked header from 8 yards, but he sent Page’s cross wide of the post.
On 21 minutes, West Ham thought they had the opener. A cross-field ball from Moses Makasi was met by the head of Nathan Mavila at the back post and struck the back of the net, only to be belatedly chalked off by the linesman. Without the privilege of a replay, we could not tell for sure, but it looked very, very marginal if it was offside.
But just a couple of minutes later we found ourselves behind. Grady Diangana, who had looked lively so far, uncharacteristically misplaced a pass to Josh Pask and inadvertently sent Chris Long through on goal. The 20 year-old striker, who we suspected might feature for Brentford in their play-off final instead of this game, made no mistake in finding the net. Questions might be asked of Raphael Spiegel, though, who was beaten at his near post.
West Ham searched for a way back into the game and, on two more occasions, Jordan Brown lacked a clinical finish. The visiting goalkeeper – Mateusz Hewelt – looked in fine form as he twice denied Nathan Mavila. Everton could have found themselves two up at half time though as Callum Connolly burst through the heart of the defence and managed to squirm a square ball to winger Joe Williams but Alex Pike recovered well to clear off the line with the unimpressive Spiegel left in no man’s land.
Coming out for the second period, the Hammers would have known that this was the most important half of their season. But luck was not with West Ham as Everton doubled their lead in excruciatingly fortuitous fashion. Amos Nasha was very harshly penalised for a foul on the edge of the box and Kieran Dowell’s free kick took a hefty deflection on its way to nestling into the bottom corner. Knowing that even a draw would not be good enough, three goal against this resolute Everton side with occasional first-teamer Tyias Browning showing his class at the back.
A moment of magic swung the game back into contention for the Hammers though and it came from Djair Parfitt-Williams. The American winger collected the ball by the corner flag, played on despite being fouled, dazzled his way past two Everton defenders and floated an inch-perfect curler into the top corner. The Hammers had a lifeline.
Parfitt-Williams then led the frantic search for an equaliser and perhaps we were overly reliant on him at times. He thrice almost assisted a leveller; Pask headed a corner wide, Brown’s shot was deflected into the arms of Hewelt and substitute Jahmal Hector-Ingram was too slow in getting a shot away with left-back Antonee Robinson recovering to make a fantastic last-ditch slide tackle. Everton’s vocal captain Jonjoe Kenny cleared the ball from the feet of the poised Hector-Ingram to ensure Everton took all three points back to Merseyside and compound the Hammers to relegation at the end of a disappointing season.
Match ratings as determined by Jay Williams and Dean Ammi
Spiegel 4.5
Knoyle 7.5
Page 7
Makasi 6.5
Pask 8
Pike 6
Parfitt-Williams 9, MOTM
Nasha 7.5
Brown 6.5
Diangana 6.5
Mavila 4.5
