The Hammers’ Under-21s takes on Ipswich in the EFL Trophy next week and they also face the senior sides of Gillingham and Colchester United as part of the group stage of the competition.
West Ham’s talents squared off against the senior teams from League Two and the National League in pre-season, one of which included a narrow 2-1 defeat to fourth tier Crawley Town.
Laing admitted that taking on senior teams is an entirely different challenge as compared to taking on fellow youth sides.
The starlet stressed that the experience in pre-season has given them an idea of how to tackle senior teams and he is looking forward to the challenge of facing the Tractor Boys.
Speaking to West Ham’s official site, Laing said: “It’ll be a whole different ball game.
“In terms of playing in the Papa John’s Trophy, it’ll be a good challenge and interesting to see whether we can come away with a win.
“Senior teams seem to be a lot more direct, so it’ll be a good test for us to have to deal with long balls and play in a stadium with spectators present.
“We got an idea of how senior teams tend to play and how much more direct they are in pre-season.
“It’s all different to Premier League 2, but it should be a good challenge for the boys and we’ll see how we react to it.”
Ipswich Town are in bad form coming into the clash against the Under-21s, having not won once in their opening six games of the league season and the Hammers will be looking to pile on the misery.
