Swansea City West Ham Under-18s Premier League South

West Ham came from behind to defeat a strong performance from Swansea City Under-18s at Little Heath of Saturday afternoon.

The young Swans raced out of the blocks to attack the Hammers' goal and could have taken the lead after five minutes when a cross into the box from Keiran Evans was fired onto the post by midfielder Matt Blake.

But, the scholars continued to press and got their reward on 13 minutes when striker Brandon Griffiths raced through the midfield to shrug off the West Ham defence and round the keeper to fire into an empty net giving the Under-18s' the lead.

Swansea missed a golden opportunity to score a second ten minutes later when Keiran Evans broke into the box from the right flank to fire a shot across the face of goal.

The Scholars looked in control of the game but West Ham equalised from the penalty spot through Dan Kemp after Idris Kanu was judged to have been fouled in the area.

Neat link-up play from the Swans attack almost allowed Griffiths to retake the lead just before the break only for a last ditch tackle to deny the striker.

Both sides had chances early in the second half, West Ham saw their effort cleared off the line by Aaron Lewis before Griffiths fired a shot across the face of goal at the other end.

Swansea looked to have retaken the lead on the hour mark when Griffiths capitalised on a mistake by Matrevics in the West Ham net to tap home only for the effort to be ruled offside.

The scholars continued to press but it was West Ham that took the lead ten minutes later when Kanu squared a ball for Jahmal Ingram to slot home.

Both sides hit the woodwork, Oscar Borg's effort was first denied by the crossbar from close range before Matt Blake's whipped corner struck the bar that the other end.

The Hammer's hit the post again late on before two efforts from Liam Cullen were saved by Matrevics to secure the win for the home side.

Coach Eric Ramsay was pleased with the chances Swansea created but felt the Under-18s deserved more from the game.

"We are deeply frustrated because we feel we created more than enough chances to take something from the game," he said.

"The lads were excellent today, we were organised in defence and broke well on the counter attack but we didn't take our chances.

"We had a goal disallowed, hit the woodwork twice and created more chances on top of that, so we are disappointed to have come away with nothing because we more than matched West Ham.

"Overall myself and Chris (Llewellyn) are pleased with the performance but frustrated with the result.

"We move on from here and look to take the positives as we head into our game at home to Tottenham next week."