West Ham U21 coach Dmitri Halajko singled out the ‘real quality’ Harrison Ashby for praise during Tuesday’s 2-0 EFL Trophy victory away from home at Gillingham, while speaking to the Hammers’ website.
As if David Moyes didn’t have enough options at right-back – with Vladimir Coufal, Ryan Fredericks and Ben Johnson fighting for the same place in the starting XI – it seems only a matter of time before 19-year-old Ashby is throwing his hat into an already crowded ring.
The teenage Scot was the best player on the pitch at Priestfield, scoring the opener and setting up the second for Thierry Nevers with a glorious defence-splitting pass that Pablo Fornals would have been proud of.
Not bad for a full-back.
Could Harrison Ashby force his way into David Moyes’ plans?
“I thought the whole back four were tremendous,” Halajko said at full-time, highlighting the performances of Jamal Baptiste, Aji Alese and Emmanuel Longelo as well as that of the swashbuckling Ashby.
“Harrison got a goal and an assist – real quality moments, both of them – and the two centre-halves dealt with all of the direct play. They didn’t miss many first or second balls, which here, is a really tough place to do that.
“The whole back four were superb and Harrison had a few real high-quality moments, which put the game in our favour.
“I think, to be fair to them, they produced probably the best performance I’ve seen in this competition from an U21s team. We knew we were going to have to deal with a lot of direct play – (Gillingham are) good at set plays, they play it forward early, they play over you and try to get the second balls – so it’s different from U23s football.
“We knew we’d have to stand up to that, and I’m really impressed with how we did.”
A comfortable 2-0 win away from home at a highly experienced, physical and uncompromising League One outfit capped a superb couple of days for West Ham’s next generation.
Halajko’s Hammers put six past Manchester United on Saturday while the club’s U18 side thrashed Aston Villa by five goals to nil.
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