David Moyes' trust misplaced as West Ham fringe players waste Kidderminster Harriers chance

David Moyes opted against handing starts to a number of his promising youngsters with substitutes Armstrong Okoflex and Aji Alese the only Under-23 players involved in the matchday squad.

Moyes is proud of how the Under-23 team are faring in the Premier League 2 and with the youngsters facing Manchester United on Saturday afternoon, the boss decided against calling up the likes of Sonny Perkins and Harrison Ashby.

During the course of the game West Ham played 10 internationals but were the second best team throughout. Declan Rice's display was the only positive for the Hammers, who were thankful to their vice-captain for sparing their blushes with a late, late strike to take the match into extra-time.

Andriy Yarmolenko put in a shocking display for the Hammers in attack with Nikola Vlasic not much better and it raises the question of whether Moyes would have been better off handing starts to promising youngsters Armstrong Okoflex and Sonny Perkins. Both have been in fine form for the Under-23 side but are largely untested in the first team. However, with West Ham so poor in attack it is hard to imagine either player could have been worse than those on display.

Alex Kral did himself no favours in pushing for more minutes in a West Ham shirt, along with many of his teammates on Saturday afternoon. The August loan signing has found game time hard to come by so a solid performance in central midfield was needed from the Czech Republic international but he could not deliver.

As with many of the Hammers players he gave the ball away too regularly, often misplacing the simplest of passes. Harriers pressured the West Ham players in possession and Kral was guilty of being caught on the ball on a number of occasions.

Just eight