On the weekend that The East End diety Lord Scott Parker probably left the club, the area was smited with rain. However, in the shires of Nottingham where SP was thought as a Chelsea failure and Newcastle journey man, the sun shone and WHU were found not to have befallen the same fate as the Tower of London when the raven’s leave.
Collison came into the middle to replace Parker and Faubert moved to the right hand side of midfield, somewhere he had found success two years ago. There was also the return of the former Hammer George McCartney in the left back berth.
With two wins on the road and no goals conceded, interspersed with some shoddy form at home, great things were expected today, and West Ham didn’t disappoint early on. They weathered some early tricky tree domination, with Rob Green being on terrific form again. Then, as seems to be the norm nowadays, Forest conceded an own goal, after a relatively weak cross to break the deadlock in the Hammer favour. Not long after that Tonka was heading back in a corner for Nolan to get on the end of our second. A similar result awaited Carlton Cole not long after that. 3-0 to West Ham at half time , great job, although probably not an accurate reflection of the game. I would love to know what was said to Nolan just before he scored as he lost the plot with someone in the Forest team after it went in.
The second half started with all the play being with Forest, but to no avail. After 60 mins Mark Noble was very lucky not to get a yellow for a way over the top challenge.
With 30 to go Forest introduced Matt Derbyshire and an old WHU target Andy Reid to the fray, and therefore completed all 3 of their available subs.
This lead to more pressure on WHU and culminated with Findlay getting a goal after some great passing around the box by Forest, which was also the first goal WHU have conceded on the road this season.
There was some complaint about the build up involving a handball by Andy Reid which got Nolan a yellow.
By this time CC was off for big Fred. In the 74th Collison was subbed for Faye to add some steel to the back line. to be fair Collison looked like a passenger for most of the game.
Following a shoddy corner in the 75th Winston Reid got on the end of the second cross to score his first league goal for the club. 1-4 to the Hammers and they get 4 away for the second time this season. Game over.
The last 10 brought little apart from a yellow each for both Reid and Faubert after some off the ball handbags. Nolan nearly got a defection in on 94 and Tonka stopped one on the line in the 95th
The positives were another 3 points away from home and another great display by Tonka. Faubert also had a stormer today, making great runs to support the front line. Even Faye seemed on point in his cameo near the end. CC played well today as well and I hope he stays on past Wednesday.
The one worry for me was Collinson. I know he’s been out for nearly a season but he has had a full pre season and still looks like a lost boy in the midfield. Hopefully he can pull it round.
We now go into the international break with 10 points, and on a high. Hopefully we can break the hoodoo over home games with the visit of Portsmouth on the 10th. The day after I get back from Canada. Please don’t make the jet lag worse Hammers.
COYI
Mrben09 