Vertu Trophy: MK Dons 1-4 West Ham U21s
A young West Ham side swept a second-string MK Dons aside in the opening group game in the Vertu Trophy on Tuesday night, winning 5-1 at Stadium MK.
The damage was done in the first-half, courtesy of two Preston Fearson strikes and a Laurence Maguire own goal put the Irons in total control at the break.
A misfiring Dons, made up of a mixture of second-string and youth, pulled one back from the penalty spot when Aaron Collins won and converted on 67 minutes, but West Ham put it to bed four minutes later when Callum Marshall struck from close range. The young striker added his second and West Ham’s fifth with the final kick of the game to complete the rout.
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Laurence Maguire made his first appearance of the season as he was named as one of the six senior players to feature in the much-changed starting line-up to face the young Hammers. Connal Trueman, Jon Mellish, Will Collar, Jonathan Leko and Aaron Collins were also handed starts, alongside Kobe Sinclair-Linton, Simone Troso and Chase Medwynter who were handed their full debuts.
Ahead of the game, head coach Warne said the early competition would be treated as a training opportunity, but he would not have been pleased by the first-half performance from his side as they trailed 3-0 at the break.
Twice Preston Fearon was able to pick out the bottom corner from similar moves, first converting George Earthy’s cross after 12 minutes despite hints of offside before adding a second six minutes from time when he fired home Mohamadou Kante’s cross.
Though the second came as a bit of a gut-punch for the hosts, West Ham’s third compounded their misery as Callum Tripp stood on the ball and was sent sprawling, allowing a low cross to be driven into the mix, and put past his own keeper by the returning Maguire.
It could have been made much worse within the first minute of the second-half when Dons gifted Callum Marshall the freedom of their half to bear down on Trueman one-on-one, only to be denied by the Dons keeper, who spared the blushes of his team-mates.
Dons’ promising spells were too few and far between as they sought an unlikely way back into the game, but they did have a couple of opportunities to get their nose into it again. Aaron Collins and Will Collar both tested the experienced Lukasz Fabianski in the West Ham net, though he could do little after the ex-Bolton striker was downed by Ezra Mayers in the box.
His penalty sent the keeper the wrong way to make it 3-1 midway through the second-half but West Ham would put the game back beyond reach four minutes later when Marshall got his reward with an effort from close range to restore their three-goal lead.
And the promising striker completed the scoring at the death when a well-worked free-kick found him on the edge of the box, bending in his second and West Ham’s fifth to complete the rout.
Referee: Aaron Farmer
Attendance: 1,074 (129)
MK Dons: Trueman, Maguire (Domi 62), Mellish, Tripp, Sinclair-Linton, Collar, Lewis-Burgess (Thompson-Sommers 72), Troso (Guzynski 83), Medwynter, Leko, Collins
Subs not used: Finch, Kelly, Singh-Hurditt, Burke
West Ham: Fabianski, Adiele, Battrum, Clayton, Earthy (Caliste 68), Fearon (Medine 90), Golambeckis (Colau 90), Kante, Marshall, Mayers, Potts
Subs not used: Hooper, Akpata, Oyebade, Sowunmi
Booked: Potts, Lewis-Burgess, Mellish
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