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It was better than forcing yourselves to watch that Champions League stuff, wasn’t it? The opportunity to experience something uplifting, for a change.

From George Earthy’s classy goal to Fin Herrick’s double save from a last seconds, Colchester spot kick, I doubt you will see something as special as that for a while. You never know, the penalty heroics could go down in West Ham history if the young ‘keeper’s career progresses the way we all hope.




The match was hidden behind one of those Sky red buttons, or in a corner of YouTube, but there it was - West Ham Under 21s historic Vertu Trophy last-32 clash at Colchester. Yes, a very clunky title, but it’s that tournament that includes third and fourth division sides plus Premier League Under 21 squads.

West Ham were the last Under 21s left in the competition and have now reached the last 16, the furthest a West Ham side has ever progressed.

Yes, you could have tuned into Gianluca Scamacca’s goal that helped send Chelsea to defeat. Very amusing I know. Or seen Mo Kudus score a ridiculously-awarded penalty for Spurs, or – if you could be bothered to search Sky’s deepest corners further - there was a Danny Ings goal.

Maybe you could have witnessed the 1,000th interview over Mo Salah’s selfish nonsense after being reduced to benchwarming? The BBC even commissioned a “personality” assessment for their website. As if we cared. Easy that, he hasn’t got one.

So why bother with stuff in a competition we are never going to be involved in and just serves to keep the entitled elite of football at the top?

Our Under 21s are worth watching these days and if you are going to pontificate about ‘playing the yoff’ it pays to know what you are talking about by watching them for yourselves. You get to see their strengths, physicality, character and potential.

It’s too easy to just throw in the kids. Sam Allardyce did it once, back in January 2014, which resulted in a 5-0 hammering at Nottingham Forest. Half-a-dozen kids played, another load were on the bench.




Freddie Potts' brother Dan played, as did a lad called Danny Whitehead. I've not heard much of him since, although on Sunday I noticed he was in Macclesfield’s 3-1 second round win at Slough, a third round home tie with holders Crystal Palace being their reward.

My point is that blooding youngsters too early can leave their careers shattered. Fans should not think these things are not carefully planned by academy and first team coaches.

We all hope we are seeing the next generation of our stars and they are starting to make their long awaited progress into Nuno Espirito Santo’s thinking, having seemingly been invisible to Graham Potter.

Mind you, Potter found it didn’t go down too well when he played Freddie Potts throughout pre-season, but then bottled it and dumped the midfielder on the eve of the season opener at Sunderland. His indecision was final, it seemed.

Freddie has done more than okay under Nuno, although you do wonder what would have happened to our kids had the club not embarked on a cost-cutting, fire sale - sorry, but that’s what happened. It was no classy rebuild as promised last summer. No player with a contract ending was given a new deal; look back, that’s what you’ll find.

Which explains a lot of Vladimir Coufal’s anger when he was informed curtly by Potter that it was a “club decision not to renew his contract.” Nothing to do with me mate.

The squad was gutted of experience and replacements were in short supply, give or take the outstanding Mateus Fernandes, Malik Diouf and Soungoutou Magassa, who have all come good in some form. But Nuno has been forced to give youth a chance.




And what we saw at Colchester was testimony to what has been possible, although I never subscribe to the wholesale “play the yoff” clamour, when these things should be handled carefully as schoolboys become scholars and then get their first pro contracts at 18. Boys to men is never that easy.

But I do sense we will start to see a few more of this Under 21 side in the first team squad soon. Mo Kante and Ezra Mayers made their debuts recently against Manchester United and Brighton and did more than enough. Nuno was, it seems, testing the water with Diouf and Aaron Wan-Bissaka off to the African Cup of Nations soon and not back until mid-January.

Earthy will get another chance and I was hugely impressed with Ryan Battrum on the right.

Nuno may need a few more to fill the bench, particularly with several senior players likely to be gone during the January window. James Ward-Prowse, Niclas Fullkrug, Andy Irvine and Guido Rodriguez for a start, as our Portuguese coach starts his expected refit, no doubt with his long term agent Jorge Mendes close at hand.

All this is for the future, though. The 1-0 win at Colchester secured a last 16 tie with Wimbledon, it was a memorable night that said a lot about our core support. Now I know that a large percentage of our fans live out in Essex and Suffolk and a trip to Colchester is a "home" tie for them.

And from the pictures I’ve seen, it looked like a jolly boys outing with more than a few well known faces around.

But there was still 1,593 away fans there, occupying one whole end and giving our kids an enormous lift with their support, clearly heard on TV. A Billy Bonds tribute banner and “Billy Bonds claret and blue army” were prominent.




The loyalty our travelling fans show should not be downplayed. We may not be able to generate a hostile atmosphere at the London Stadium, for all the reasons we have frequently discussed. But the noise at Colchester, on the back of the exceptional travelling army at Bournemouth, Manchester United and Brighton, was exceptional.

That tends to put to bed the nonsense emanating from inside the club that the 'No More BS' campaign is a distraction for the players. There’s more of that to come, but not on Sunday for the Aston Villa game when the club will officially mark the passing of our greatest ever captain, Billy Bonds.

There will be a Red Card protest at the Fulham game on 27 December, more black balloons and banners at every away game. The Hammers United/FAB campaign is not going away. While the club are knocking out £15 tickets, and - I believe from many friends - not able to sell returned tickets on the club’s exchange, this protest must be hitting home.

So it’s good to be able to enjoy such moments as the win at Colchester, who for some odd reason put out a much changed team from their last league game and then threw on a string of substitutes to try to rescue a result.

And that is when we saw the best of Herrick. He was outstanding, not just for the last seconds heroics. Hauled back from a successful loan to Boreham Wood when Lukasz Fabianski was injured, he could well find himself number two 'keeper if we part company with Mads Hermansen.

He’s played for England at under 16,17,18,19 and 20 and has that look of calm confidence with the ball at his feet that every young ‘keeper must have these days. He’ll be 20 next month and has a new long term contract until 2028.

Maybe Fin can take confidence from Mervyn Day, who made his West Ham debut in goal at 18 against Ipswich in February 1973. Two years later he became the second youngest goalkeeper to appear in an FA Cup Final, in our win over Fulham. Now there’s a target for Herrick to think about.

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