AN ALBION youth team manager says he has been impressed by the players who have recently made the step up from the Under-18s to the Under-23s.

The likes of Samy Chouchane, Casper Nilsson and Marcus Ifill have played for Brighton and Hove Albion Under-23s since the turn of the year.

Manager Andrew Crofts said seeing the young players get their first taste of Under-23s football has been a pleasure to watch.

“It's always nice to see the scholars pushing to get into the under-23s,” he said. “It needs to be competitive for them to get into the group, we can’t make it easy for them.

“They’ve worked really hard and taken their opportunities, which makes me excited to work with them in the future. There are some exciting players coming through.

“Samy Chouchane came in for his first under-23s start against Everton and he nearly played the full game – I thought he was excellent. That’s off the back of a good training period with the under-23s, he’s one of a few knocking on my door to get into the team.”

Albion head into Friday’s fixture at the London Stadium on the back of a 4-2 win over Everton, having lost 2-0 to Crystal Palace in the previous game.

“The last two performances have been really good,” Crofts said.

“They were like the ones we put in for the first few months of the season. After Palace it was about making them realise how well they played, to make sure they know they didn’t deserve to lose that game.

“We tweaked a few things for the Everton game, but we went in with the same mindset and got what we deserved.”

Albion face a West Ham side who haven’t won in the Premier League 2 since January, but still sit third in the table.

“West Ham are a good team, they haven’t won in a little while, but they’ve got good individuals. I know the manager [Mark Robson] and think of him really highly,” Crofts added.

“But we’re going into this one with decent momentum.”

Friday’s match will kick-off at 7pm, with live updates available on the Albion website and Twitter feed.