Blackburn Rovers are out of the Premier League 2 knockout competition after losing 4-1 to West Ham United on Friday night.

Mike Sheron's side finished 15th at the end of the season and so took part in a seeded end-of-season tournament. Only the top 16 teams qualified and so Rovers were handed the second-toughest draw on paper, away at The Hammers.

Rovers were competitive for most of the match but missed chances in the first half. Sean Moore then put the hosts ahead before half-time.

There was a flurry of four goals in 12 minutes as West Ham went 3-0 up before Jake Batty netted with 10 minutes remaining. Callum Marshall then rounded up the game with two minutes left, ending Rovers' U21 campaign for the season.

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“Obviously overall we’re disappointed,” Sheron told RoversTV.

“I thought in the first half we didn’t play fantastically well, but we had a game plan and we stuck to it.

“We had one or two moments where if we’d taken advantage of them then you think maybe things could have been different, but pretty disappointed to concede from a corner just before half-time, which probably put a different slant on things.

“After 10-15 minutes of the second half, we decided to try and come out a bit more and as soon as we did that we left spaces and they took advantage.

“We’ve had a few injuries of late. We didn’t have Zak Gilsenan, Igor Tyjon, Rory Finneran, Harley O’Grady-Macken, Kristi Montgomery, Dom Biniek, so we’ve got quite a lot out, so it was slightly disappointing we weren’t as strong as probably what we wanted to be, but it provided opportunities for other people and I thought some of the young lads competed tonight, which was pleasing.

“I thought Jake Batty took his goal really well. He’s got that athleticism, so we tried to employ him a bit further up the pitch, and it worked a treat.

“If we could have got another one then, then it could have been something different, but that’s football.

“I’ve got to give West Ham a lot of credit because they’ve done well this season and we wish them well going forward.

“For us, we’ve got to learn our lessons and learn them quickly. We’ve got time to recuperate now and hopefully come back stronger and fresher.”