West Ham United Academy director Terry Westley spoke of his delight at seeing Djair Parfitt-Williams and his West Ham United Development Squad teammates lift the Barclays Under 21 Premier League Cup trophy, following their penalty shootout victory over Hull City.
Already leading 1-0 from a Parfitt-Williams goal in the first leg, Westley’s charges put in a terrific performance at the KC Stadium, however they were pegged back right at the last as Hull equalized through Will Annan in the 93rd minute.
After a stalemate extra time period, the Hammers emerged champions netting all five of their penalties while Raphael Spiegel made the all-important save to win 5-3 on spot kicks.
Parfitt-Williams returned to the starting XI after recovering from an injury to score last week's only goal as substitute, and in the 42nd minute he almost put West Ham United ahead again when he came close to netting the almost important goal, this time he hit the post! He was so unlucky, he was livid with himself.
Due to the fact that Parfitt-Williams is still recovering the medical staff would not allow him to play a full 90 minutes, so in the 68th minute Westley maked the first changes of the night as Grady Diangana and Parfitt-Williams were replaced by Stephen Hendrie and Alex Pike.
Speaking to WHTV after the final whistle, Westley said: “It’s great to win. At this level we usually talk about development, but tonight we really wanted to win.
“We took it right to the very end and overall I think we deserved to win. We have to credit to Hull because they more than gave us a game; they were good, hard to break down and had ability”
“Over the two games we created a lot of chances, and we really should have put the game to bed a lot sooner.”
Among jubilant scenes at the end and during the Champions ceremony, Westley highlighted his team’s spirit as the crucial factor: “To be pegged back right at the end and still come out on top is massive. We were dead on our feet out there toward the end.
“We showed great character and determination to come back and it’ll stand them in good stead for the future.”
In what has already been a successful season for the first team, Westley continued to praise the impressive number of Hammers who turned up for the match and sang their hearts out.
Westley beamed: “This club is unbelievable. Every you go, there are fans. The awards dinner last night, there was more than a 1,000. Now tonight, three hours away, midweek our fans were magnificent.
“We had 10,000 at the first leg, 35,000 in the Europa League qualifier, it really is staggering.”
Parfitt-Williams speaking with www.islandstats.com following the match said, “I can’t describe how I am feeling right now, but I can say it feels good.”
Parfitt-Williams said about the equalizer, “It was about 30 seconds remaining when they scored and I was really upset, especially because I had to come off, but I had confidence the boys would pull through.”
Parfitt-Williams concluded, “It really, really feels great.”
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