West Ham beat PSV Eindhoven to keep their Premier League Under 21 International Cup ambitions alive as 15-year-old Reece Oxford captained his side to victory at Upton Park.

It is something rarely seen in football that a schoolboy such as Oxford should lead a team made up of players in some cases four or five years older than him.

But then it is increasingly apparent that Oxford, one of the best up-and-coming centre-halves in the youth game, is no ordinary teenager.

VIDEO Scroll down to see Sam Allardyce talk about keeping Oxford at the club

Kieran Bywater (left) is congratulated by his team-mates after levelling the scores at Upton Park

Reece Oxford (centre) pictured on the bench for the first team in the Capital One Cup in August

Matthias Fanimo (right) battles with PSV's Moussa Sanoh during the Premier League International Cup match

MATCH FACTS West Ham Under 21s: Spiegel, Westley (Pike 81), Fanimo, Makasi, Pask, Oxford (c), Bywater, Marlow, Lletget, Whitehead (Nasha 71), Sadlier (Mavila 90) Subs not used: Bogard, Tombides, Onariase, Gordon PSV Under 21s: Bertrams (GK), Hermannsson, Kock, De Wijs, Tamata, Schaars, Sanoh, Leemans, Vloet, Lukovic (Rommens 65), Rudovic (van Overbeek 58) Subs not used: Loof, Heesakkers, de la Paz Referee: Alan Young Advertisement

The Hammers are already fending off strong interest from the likes of Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea for the boy already being likened to another product of the east end club’s academy, Rio Ferdinand.

Indeed, chairman David Sullivan went public a long time ago with his frustration that one of the Premier League’s big clubs could easily turn Oxford’s head and acquire him for a fee as paltry as £250,000.

And so mature performances such as this one may have to be savoured by the West Ham faithful as they kept their chances of progressing to the knockout stage in this first edition of the International Cup.

After Andjelo Rudovic had handed the Dutch visitors a third-minute lead, an unstoppable strike from Kieran Bywater and an assured finish from Kieran Sadlier turned the tables.

Andjelo Rudovic celebrates with his team-mates after scoring the opener early in the match

West Ham youth player Jordan Brown posted a picture on Instagram of his view from the stands

PREMIER LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL CUP - GROUP STAGES Group A Chelsea Norwich Porto Borussia Monchengladbach Group B Fulham West Ham Athletic Bilbao PSV Eindhoven Group C Leicester Man City Benfica Schalke Group D Everton Sunderland Celtic Villarreal Advertisement

This match failed to live up to the end-to-end excitement of West Ham’s first foray into this tournament last month, when Athletic Bilbao beat them 5-3 at the same venue, but it was a more favourable result.

In the meantime, PSV had beaten Bilbao 1-0 and were therefore seeking to ensure their qualification as they arrived at the Boleyn on a crisp November night.

And they enjoyed the perfect start when Andrija Lukovic controlled the ball in a dangerous area and teed up Rudovic to fire past West Ham keeper Raphael Spiegel.

The Swiss stopper then showed great reflexes to thwart Rai Vloet at his near post while Oxford had to be alert to slide in and thwart Moussa Sanoh as PSV continued their positive start.

Kieran Sadlier, scorer of the winning goal, vies for the ball (left), while Fanimo attempts a tackle (right)

15-year-old centre-back Oxford, pictured in August, captained West Ham's Under 21s on Wednesday night

Gradually, the hosts gained a foothold in the game and Ben Marlow connected well with a corner only to see his half-volley go wide of the post.

And on 37 minutes, they gained an equaliser when Bywater found the top corner with a powerful shot from the edge of the area. Their parity was well deserved after a strong recovery from a shaky start.

Indeed West Ham could have led before half-time but goalkeeper Jesse Bertrams saved first Sebastian Lletget’s shot on the turn and then Sadlier’s swerving effort from range.

But they didn’t have to wait long after the break to gain their reward as Lletget split the PSV defence open and Sadlier ran through to finish well past Bertrams.

PSV responded brightly to going behind and Lukovic rattled the post with Spiegel well beaten. West Ham retreated further and further back, taking every opportunity to break up the flow of the game.

With 10 minutes left, Nasha’s wayward shot somehow found its way to Elvio van Overbeek, who was denied by a terrific Spiegel save.