Nathan Trott’s West Ham United Academy coach Liam Manning highlighted the importance of the Under 23s’ last three Premier League 2 matches after a 1-1 draw with Stoke City at London Stadium.
The young Hammers are hoping to finish in a play-off spot in the division but know they need some positive results when they face a trio of Newcastle United, Middlesbrough and West Bromwich Albion before the season ends.
Terry Westley’s team – in the top five now – are currently three points ahead of sixth-placed Aston Villa.
And after the London Stadium draw, Manning’s focus immediately switched to Monday’s clash with Newcastle United.
He said, “We need to pick up some results in the last three games to get in the play-offs and the pleasing thing is we have three games in three stadiums, Newcastle on Monday at St. James’, back here against Middlesbrough and then away to West Brom at the Hawthorns.
“They’re really good experiences for the boys and hopefully we can kick on and finish in that top five.
“We look at tonight’s game at a development point of view, and we link that to winning and we obviously want to win games, but it’s a really good experience for the boys tonight to come up against a different challenge.
“They were very organised and efficient at what they did so it was difficult.”
Stoke put men behind the ball after equalising through Julien Ngoy from the penalty spot following Declan Rice’s foul on Ryan Hill.
Edimilson Fernandes, who played 15 minutes at the end of the first team’s Premier League fixture against Chelsea the night before, had opened the scoring with a tidy finish with five minutes on the clock.
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