{"id":487139,"date":"2026-03-21T05:54:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T05:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/487139\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T05:54:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T05:54:12","slug":"west-ham-kids-bounce-back-in-style-as-unplayable-josh-ajala-keeps-record-going","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/487139\/","title":{"rendered":"West Ham kids bounce back in style as ‘unplayable’ Josh Ajala keeps record going"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\/ Add as preferred source on Google <\/a> <\/p>\n

Greg Lincoln\u2019s West Ham United Under-21s bounced back from their National League Cup final heartbreak in perfect fashion with a 4-2 victory away to Blackburn Rovers on Friday.<\/p>\n

Just three days after Boreham Wood triumphed on penalties at Meadow Park<\/a> \u2013 goalkeeper Finlay Herrick endured a moment to forget<\/a> when he spilled a 93rd minute equaliser into his own net \u2013 the claret and blue kids had smiles on their faces once again.<\/p>\n

West Ham United<\/a> will be represented in the Premier League 2 play-offs for a third straight season.<\/p>\n

Heartbreak for Herrick and West Ham! \ud83d\ude29 <\/p>\n

What did you make of that National League Cup final loss?<\/p>\n

\"Finlay <\/p>\n

Goals from Josh Ajala<\/a>, Preston Fearon, Junior Robinson and Dan Cummings<\/a> were enough to see off a spirited Blackburn outfit in Lancashire. <\/p>\n

As a result, Greg Lincoln<\/a> will be leading his charges into the last-16 as another shot at silverware presents itself for his beaten finalists.<\/p>\n

Josh Ajala and Preston Fearon score in West Ham United win<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was always going to be a challenge for the players after the emotional rollercoaster of Tuesday night,\u201d Lincoln tells the official West Ham website<\/a>. \u201cWe continued to frame it as bridging the gap into senior football. <\/p>\n

\u201cTo have a long, sustained career, that\u2019s what you have to do; play Saturday and Tuesday throughout the season, and that was a replica of that today. At times, you will be tired; tired hearts, tired minds. Tired physically, psychologically, emotionally.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut you have to find a way to get through. I was really proud of the boys, the way that they stuck together and ultimately turned it around, coming from behind twice to win the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fresh from signing a new contract, Josh Ajala has been in \u2018unplayable\u2019 form<\/a> throughout much of 2026. The free-scoring forward endured a rare off-night in the National League Cup decider, but he was back on the scoresheet here.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, Fabrizio Romano was very wrong\u2026 <\/p>\n

What should the next steps for Josh Ajala be at West Ham?<\/p>\n

\"Josh Junior Robinson and Daniel Cummings on target at Blackburn<\/p>\n

Ajala has a one-in-two record for the reserves this season. His 12th in 24 matches came when he curled home stylishly from the edge of the box, cancelling out Blackburn\u2019s opener in a six-goal second-half.<\/p>\n

The magical Preston Fearon now has double figures<\/a>, too. Zero goals in 2024\/25, ten in 2025\/26. Right-back Junior Robinson added a third, putting the Hammers ahead for the first time on the day, before Scotland Under-19 striker Cummings made sure.<\/p>\n

While the \u2018sensational\u2019 Josh Landers added a cup final goal to his tally<\/a> in midweek, his compatriot is bouncing back impressively from an injury-hit start to his career this side of Hadrian\u2019s Wall.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhenever you play a Blackburn team, they keep you honest,\u201d Lincoln added. \u201cThey\u2019re always really hard-working, always very well organised, and they\u2019ll fight to the very end, which they did today.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are lots of things we can improve on and we\u2019ll endeavour to continue doing that. But I think the big tick in the box today was around our character, personality and togetherness.\u201d<\/p>\n

West Ham will face local rivals Tottenham Hotspur on April 4th before the play-offs get underway.<\/p>\n

Join Our Newsletter<\/p>\n

Receive a digest of our best West Ham content each week direct to your mailbox<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Add as preferred source on Google Greg Lincoln\u2019s West Ham United Under-21s bounced back from their National League…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":487140,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[172577,218,144217,172578,221,163290,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-487139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-daniel-cummings","tag-football","tag-josh-ajala","tag-junior-robinson","tag-premier-league","tag-preston-fearon","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=487139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/487140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}