WEST Ham United U18s are flying high after hitting 17 goals in their last three matches.

The youth side chalked up a 7-3 win over London rivals Millwall at the weekend, while recent results include a 6-0 victory at Cardiff and a 4-1 home win against Chelsea.

Freddie Sears was the star of the show at Millwall, hitting a hat-trick, and Bondz N'Gala, Anthony Edgar, Jack Jeffrey and Junior Stanislas also found the target.

Delighted Academy director Tony Carr said: "To score seven goals away from home is a tremendous achievement and we were always in control.

"It was another all-round great team performance and while you don't expect every game to be as high scoring as our games have been in the last three matches, we want to keep it all going now. We are playing really well and scoring goals from all over."

For young striker Sears, his hat-trick against Millwall was his second in as many games - he hit three against Chelsea the week before - and has now scored 12 goals in the last six games. The only downside was an injured ankle that forced him to pull out of the England U19 squad this week.

"Freddie took a knock on his ankle after scoring his first goal. He didn't want to come off, but once he had scored his hat-trick I pulled him off as he needed treatment," said Carr.

"He did join up with the England U19s, but they sent him home on Sunday night because he isn't going to recover in time to play. It's disappointing for him but, if he stays in this rich vein of form, there will certainly be other opportunities for him.

"Fred has stepped up to the levels I want him to be at this season and he is carrying on the good work from last year, when he was also very prolific."

The young Hammers take a breather this weekend with no match scheduled, giving Carr the chance to assess a successful few weeks.

"We started the season disappointingly by our standards," he said. "We only lost narrowly 1-0 in both games and really should have got something from them. So, it was all about getting the confidence going and, once we started scoring, we have gone on and upwards from there.

"The way we played in the second half against Chelsea was the best we have played this year."