The final pre-season friendly ended with the Urchins sharing the spoils with West Ham United’s U19s. After a goalless first half, Brad Warner put the hosts ahead on 51 minutes only for substitute Watson to restore parity for the Irons midway through the half.
Tuesday 08-August-2017
HORNCHURCH 1 WEST HAM UTD 1
HFC – Mott – Hursit – Porter – Lee – Cooper – Trialist – Fairweather-Johnson – Bentley – Wall – Purcell – Warner
Subs –
Styles for Francis 22
McKenzie for Wall 50
Joseph for Purcell 54
Cohen for Hursit 59
Tuohy for Warner 65
Goodacre for Cooper 70
Hussain for Bentley 70
WHU – Matrevics – Ngakia – Hannam – Mingi – Alese – Wells – Hamilton – Rosa – Gordon – Yakubu – Rosaire Longelo
Subs – Watson – Mbeta – Mhassani – Adarkwa – Emmanuel Longelo – Chesters
Scorers – Warner 51 (H) – Watson 69 (W)
H – red and white stripes / black / black
W – claret, blue sleeves / white / sky blue
HORNCHURCH 1 WEST HAM UTD 1
On a mild night, both teams took time to settle, although Hornchurch were almost gifted an early lead when West Ham keeper Rihards Matrevics had to move sharply to grab a wayward back pass which otherwise would have ended up in the net.
Matrevics was again in action, fielding a Hornchurch corner, before Sam Mott had his first save to make when he took a long range shot from Jeremy Ngakia.
Ross Wall was given a shooting opportunity but was crowded out, and Hornchurch were forced to make a 22nd minute substitution, when Elliot Styles came on for a trialist, who had picked up an injury.
West Ham were very sharp in midfield and Mott saved from Pip Yakubu, but West Ham were fortunate when Alex Bentley moved past a defender to fire his shot narrowly wide of the post, and a minute later George Purcell sent in a hard drive which was a fraction too high.
Purcell was again prominent in the next move, when he set up a chance for Brad Warner, but Matrevics saved well.
Five minutes into the second half, Purcell, out on the right wing, sent the ball into the goalmouth, where Leon McKenzie, who had just replaced Ross Wall, headed on to Brad Warner, who neatly placed his header into the net to open the score.
Hornchurch began to press, and a Warner free kick was held by Matrevics, whilst McKenzie turned sharply to hit a shot past the defence but just wide of the goal.
With numerous changes on both sides, Mott made an excellent save to turn a hard drive from the left over the bar for a corner. But the defence could not clear the ball, which ran out to Louie Watson, who scored with a hard shot from the edge of the area.
Ten minutes from time Martin Tuohy surprised a visiting defender to win the ball, which he fed through to McKenzie, whose shot came back off the post.
There was almost a sting in the tail, when West Ham came forward with just seconds to go, and, but Mott was ideally placed to take a long range shot which appeared to be heading into the net.