Mark Phillips, the West Ham United under-18 coach, said he was pleased by the “strong character” shown by Bermuda signing Nathan Trott on his debut at the weekend.

The former BAA and North Village goalkeeper rebounded from a costly blunder to keep his team in contention as West Ham came from behind to salvage a point in a 1-1 home draw with Reading in the Barclay’s Under-18 Premier League group one play-off at Rush Green on Saturday.

Trott was at fault for the visiting side’s 20th minute goal after spilling a Teddy Howe cross which allowed Sam Smith, the Reading striker, to tap into an empty net.

However, Trott redeemed himself by making an outstanding save to prevent Reading from extending their lead before Anthony Scully levelled the tie on the hour mark.

“I was pleased with his attitude, but I think even he knows that he was at fault for Reading’s goal,” Phillips said. “Saying that, Nathan is a fantastic goalkeeper and he showed about ten minutes after the dropped catch how strong his mind and character is by making an outstanding one-on-one save to stop Reading going two ahead.

“That really shows that he is going to be a fantastic goalkeeper for West Ham because when you make a mistake, it’s hard to keep your mind in the game but Nathan did very well with that.”

Phillips believes his side could have had a better outcome and was expecting his side to push on and win the game late in the second half.

“I think we dominated the second half and no disrespect to Reading but I felt like we were the only team trying to play the game in the right way,” he said. “I really do feel like we played some good football at times.

“We got the ball down and passed it round well, although we didn’t actually create too many opportunities on goal. I think the least we deserved out of the game was a draw.”

Trott was one of four changes West Ham made to their team from the one that lost 3-0 away to high-flying Manchester City in their previous outing. Phillips named another young team as more players are called up for under-21 duty and he was delighted with the way the players responded to the challenge.

“That’s what it’s all about,” he said. “It’s about the under-18s pushing up to the under-21s, who should then be pushing up to making substitute appearances for the first team.”