Newcastle United moved in to the Sixth Round of the FA Youth Cup last night with a comfortable 3-0 victory at Upton Park over West Ham United.
Prior to kick-off the hosts had Nicky Barrett ruled out with an ankle injury and his replacement England U16 international Dominic Vose featured prominently in the opening minutes as the Hammers started the game brightly.
However Newcastle United’s youngsters never looked back after a strike from centre-back Jeff Henderson had put them ahead on 14 minutes.
The visitors then went close to increasing their advantage before the interval when Greg McDermott saw his powerful effort strike the bar and Phil Airey’s header missed the right hand corner by a matter of inches.
Then two Newcastle goals inside three second half minutes ensured that their earlier missed chances would not come back to haunt them.
Airey doubled the lead on 50 minutes when he sprinted through the middle before placing his effort beyond the reach of Hammers keeper, Peter Loveday.
Two minutes later Australian forward Brad Inman made the tie safe when his low shot found the bottom corner from 20 yards out.
The Hammers who still looked good when in possession rallied late on and were unlucky to not reduce the deficit when George Moncur’s superb free-kick rattled the cross bar on 82 minutes.
The home side were then awarded a penalty with 5 minutes remaining but Magpies ‘keeper Jak Alnwick blocked Eoin Wearen’s spot kick with his legs to complete a miserable evening for the home side.
Newcastle will now play the winners of the Hull City vs Crystal Palace tie.
