n the build-up to this FA Youth Cup final, Mark Noble had described this West Ham side as “comfortable being uncomfortable” and it was not difficult to see why.
Against an Arsenal team that, coached by Jack Wilshere, played much of the game’s cutest football and enjoyed fair spells of dominance, Kevin Keen’s youngsters produced a brilliantly ruthless display to lift the trophy for the first time since 1999 with a 5-1 triumph at the Emirates Stadium.
In doing so, the Hammers sealed a fine double, displaying all the lethal winning nous that has become ingrained by a runaway title success in the U18 Premier League South, sealed earlier this month with victory over the same opposition.
Arsenal are only tenth of 12 teams in that division, but that gap was not reflected in the two lineups here, with both teams calling upon youngsters who have spent much of the season playing up an age-group with their respective clubs’ U21s.
Indeed, if there was a stark difference to be found ahead of kick-off, it came in the stands, a nominal home game for the Gunners made to feel anything but as a packed and raucous away end of 7,000 – barely a fifth of the tickets sold – serenaded the teams with several choruses of ‘I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles’ in the early exchanges.
It was Arsenal who had the better of those, going close through Michal Rosiak’s free-kick and then taking the lead when Omari Benjamin made a tricky first-time finish look simple, bending wonderfully into the far corner after Amario Cozier-Duberry’s effort had been parried.
Two goals in three minutes from the visitors’ first two attacks turned the game on its head, though, with first midfielder George Earthy steering a fine finish across goal and then Irish forward Callum Marshall latching onto captain Gideon Kodua’s low cross to convert from close-range.
Still, Arsenal looked the more assertive side, with only fine covering work from Patrick Kelly halting several promising breakaways, but three minutes before the interval a slip from Josh Robinson and a moment of brilliance from Kodua opened up a two-goal cushion, the Hammers man punishing the centre-back’s air-kick by lobbing goalkeeper Noah Cooper from all of 35 yards.
West Ham had to soak up pressure after the restart, with centre-backs Regan Clayton and Kaelen Casey taking no backwards step, before the latter’s towering header from Ollie Scarles’ corner allowed the celebrations proper to begin.
Substitute Josh Briggs capped them, scoring with his first-touch in the final minute before, rather sportingly, the PA offered up another burst of West Ham’s anthem to accompany the trophy lift.
