WHUFC vs Barnsley 17\12\2011 Championship

After last weeks capitulation against Reading and the previous weeks throw away against Burnley, WHU needed 3 points here to get back in the swing of things. Lucky for us, no one else had got a shift on in the league , and we started the day still in second.

I was really suffering with a cold, so it was a quick train up, no beer, and straight home. London was colder than Kent for a change so that didn’t help matters.

BFS had to change things, some enforced and some just had to happen, so we started with Carew, Cole and Piq on the pitch and then tried and trusted back 4 of , Flaubert, Tompkins, McCartney and Potts. Not a returning Steve Potts rolling back the years at 44 years of age, but his son Dan making his first team debut. Having seen nearly all of his dads career, that did make me feel very old.

The game got underway with the Hammers in charge, and it became clear that we were, size wise, way bigger than them. On top of the front line we also had Diop and Nolan in the middle.
I mentioned this to John, just as we got a corner, and guess what. DIOP header, one nil. That was about it for the half. We plodded on and they defended. Cole had a couple of chances, and maybe could of done better.
The second half started in the dark and even colder, both on the pitch and in the stands. Not a lot happened until a stray cat got onto the pitch, and provided the best entertainment of the day.
As the game wore on, Faubert , who was terrorising their no 18, got subbed, I assume for an injury, but was replaced by Landsbury. Then Carew, came off for the introduction of Sears. Both Fred’s on the pitch, set my spider sense off, but to be fair big Fred put a shift in. Actually, everyone did, and that was the difference today . We actually fought and got involved and got the benefits, eg a win when maybe a draw was a fair result (0 0).
In fact Sam fought too much when he got sent to the stands after he lost it at the fourth official regarding an incident in which he thought Sears was brought down in their box. As I was right on top of the incident, I have to say Sears fell because he had a small nudge after running 3/4 of the pitch with the ball.
We are level with Southampton, but Boro beat Cardiff to be only 2 point adrift. We must win the next 3 games to get back the gap we had 2 weeks ago.
Sam has done a good job with juggling the squad, and maybe having the big lads in will be enough for this season. However, Cole still doesn’t look fit, and Nolan was just about playing yesterday.

On a positive note, Potts got into his stride in the second half, and showed some good touches and distribution. But he needs to be tested, so we can seen what’s he is really made of. But he did enough for me to be the Mrben Man of the Match.

WHUFC vs Burnley 03/12/2011. Championship

After missing last week’s comeback against Derby, i arrived at Upton Park hoping for a another impressive hammers display. This season i have missed the great home wins against Pompey, Derby, and Blackpool, but have witnessed the games against Leeds, Cardiff and Bristol City. This is starting to form a pattern, and one that i would of liked to rid myself of yesterday.

May i add that yesterday the Upper Bobby was exceptionally cold and windy, or maybe i’m just getting to that age !

After the now obligitory 1 minute for Gary Speed (let us not forget one of the greatest midfielders of all time – Socrates, passed away this weekend. RIP), the game got under way and WHU came out of the blocks, winning plenty of possession and corners.

Although industrious, i have mentioned in the blog previously that CC, cannot play on his own up top, and this was once again proved. Although, the midfield were supporting quicker than usual, especially Collinson, who overall had one of his best games this season (and was actually played in position – coincedence ?).

Nolan missed an open goal ,after some great work from CC to get the ball across the box. Maybe the ball could of been slightly better, but Kev should of buried it.

So, half time finds us at 0 0, but the Hammers were more than in control.

Early in the second half, CC flicked on a ball, that Nolan read perfectly, and then lobbed the keeper from distance to open the scoring. From then on it looked a formality. Until someone on the Burnley bench pointed out that we dont defend corners or crosses very well. Within 5 mins McCann had equalised heading in a cross, and then on the 75th minute, substitute Vokes took his chance, and headed in the winner from a corner.

Burnley's winning goal — How we threw it all away.

In all, it was a bad day at the office, and thats all. We should of won, with Jack and CC both hitting the post. Another day we could of had a rout, but all credit to Burnley for their attitude and not giving up. I assumed that without Eagles they wouldn’t move it around as well, but i was wrong.

Some final comments. Jack played really well and i hope BFS keeps him in a position that suits him rather than suits the side. Nolan looked lively for a change, and with this being the 3rd game in seven days, maybe is approaching some level of fitness. CC needs help up front, and this is easily sorted while Baldock is out, by using either Nolan or Collinson in a real no. 10 position.

Now defending. Faye and Tompkins look fantastic in one to one situations (Faye to me looks as good as Bilic and Martin, from back in the day), but there is some misorganisation in the way they defend crosses and corners. BFS, who is a diligent student of tactics, needs to sort this out, as that is one of the reasons we went down last year.

Lets get the show back on the road next week, against Reading. I’ll take a well defended one nil.

On a slightly different note, I happen to mention to my wife that all the cool kids are going for romantic breaks to the Ukraine this summer. I don’t think she believes me !

Google Chromebook – and then ?

In a world commonly called the “Post -pc era” by techno analysts, we are always net connected using some sort of mobile device, be it a tablet or phone. At work we all still use Macs or PC’s, which are usually also net connected. But the nay sayers tell us that soon those deskbound (inc. laptops) devices will be banished to hell along with floppy disks and green screens, in favour of our fondle slabs.

One of the main players in the mobile space are Google, with their own OS (Android), and devices (Nexus, etc) and supply chain (HTC, Samsung). They also have a fantastic range of cloud based applications starting with gmail and running up to the pro versions of google apps, and great viewers such as Picasa.

With all this in mind these guys have most to win from the “post – pc era”, by delivering more great devices and apps to run on them.

So i raised more than an eyebrow when Google announced in May 2011, a new device to hit the market in June, the Chromebook. This was a laptop style device running Chrome OS (also new). This interested me, as Google’s dev teams was one part of the business i had always admired, and a competing OS looked really interesting, until i realised i already had it, and it was called Chrome (the browser).

So now you can have a laptop that runs a browser, and with the advent of HTML 5 runs some apps offline if you don’t mind using Google sanctioned apps (ever tried paginating in Google docs ?). It’s basically a £400 laptop that doesn’t do any of the stuff you use your usual laptop for without a persistent IP connection, or some considerable concessions.

The latest versions of chrome do all this (kindle cloud on chrome is a great app). So to get the best of Google’s post PC era, buy a cheap PC (or not so cheap Mac) and run Chrome (which i really do recommend)

Yesterday Google dropped the price of this device (but not in the UK yet !), but to everyone else its already free !! If this is the culmination of Google’s web dominance, then i feel they have lost the plot. I give them about another 6 months before they bin the whole thing, in favour of , emmmmmmmmm PC’s ?

England Vs Sweden, Friendly International 15/11/2011

This Tuesday brought me to my first England international in the new Wembley, and brought back more questions than answers.

After the “world beating” performance against on Spain, could England’s new look Lions drive on and overturn a non-winning streak against the swedes that goes back to 1968 ?

The team look adventurous enough, with Rodwell, Baines, Zamora, Walker, Jones and Cahill in the starting lineup. The obvious omission of Rooney, paved the way for Zamora to finally deliver his Fulham form in an England shirt. He was backed up by that famous no.10 Gareth Barry ? Not sure about that, with Bent available and Defoe twiddling his thumbs. Also, why does Fabio persist with JT at the back. Take away all the racism nonsense and the plain fact is, he is not good enough for this level. He needs to go and a new captain found pre Euros (Lampard? Barry ?).

Onto the game. Wembley as usual, is a fantastic venue, but was freezing cold. England started will with Walcott playing well down the right, and getting some good crosses in. Jones and Baines looked comfortable, and Barry look out of position. I had mentioned to my wife that Zamora needs 7 chances to score, and i was proved right, as he spurned a few chances early on. Sweden offered not a lot, and finally capitulated in the 23rd minute, when from where i was sitting (at the scoreboard at the far end), Barry scored a goal after some good English build up. This was the 2000th senior England goal, but i’ve since heard it may of been an OG. Edit. Confirmed.

England kept applying pressure, and outside of a few flick and tricks, Zamora didn’t really help his cause. Half time comes and everyone disappears to warm up !

The second half started much the same as the first finished, and then drifted into the usual International friendly second half malaise. Countless subs and then games starts to look like a training excercise (which it is, but a lot of people, paid a lot of money, etc). This was not just my opinion, as it was the first time i hace seen a mexican wave last more then 10 laps of the stadium.

Bent replaced Bobby Z, and looked a real threat in the air, and must go to the Euros now. The rest tried to play the game out, but the swedes smelled blood and pushed on, and were unlucky, hitting the post, and also had a couple of sitters they could of done better with.

Game ends 1-0. So what did i learn?

First off, if I am to move to the Olympic Stadium with West Ham, then i need to be very picky regarding my seat, as my preferred spot behind the goal, is bloody miles away, and was more akin to watching a game of FIFA on a plasma TV. If you cannot see the name on someone’s shirt (in your penalty box), they are too far away.This was quite depressing and has swung me from sort of in favour of the move, to some real deep thinking regarding the advantages.

The other thing was did anyone play themselves in to the Euro squad? Probably Baines and Jones. Zamora played himself out in favour of Bent, but lets not forget, Gazza was not in the squad for Italia 90 until the March international against the Czech’s. so its still up for grabs Bobby! Less tricks more direct is the way to go in internationals.

Once again HS1 payed dividends. Kent to Wembley, 55 mins. Nice

WHUFC vs Bristol City 01-11-2011

Due to laziness, i;m post up my comments from elsewhere.

Still not blogged as I am fuming. Not because of the result, because we didn’t play to bad, just didn’t get the luck in front of goal. But as mentioned above, big and little Fred starting, just pissed me off massively. Collinson was not too clever on Saturday, but Sears, do me a lemon.

I think Baldock got subbed because he didnt look the same after he took a nasty bang on the head near the end of the first half. Noble did play well (there I’ve said it), but Nolan, he was useless. Can’t handle 2 games in 4 days?,then leave mate, this is the Championship, not the Champions League. He had a sitter early in the second and hit it straight at James, who also made 2 good saves in the first half. Nolan spent most of the game out of position and blowing out of his arse.

Not the worst game ever as reported by Talk Sport the morning after.

In other news, by using the new DLR extension and the HS1 I got home to Kent, from UP in 40 mins. Quicker then driving and I get a beer.

UPDATE: Nice win against a Hull team who themselves were unbeaten in 9 Games. A goal each for Baldock and Collinson in the second half and another clean sheet for West Ham . Sears and Piq were non starters. Long may it reign.

WHUFC vs Leicester City 29/10/2011

A month spent across the pond for me has found the Hammers moving into second in the championship, behind the force of nature that seems to be Southampton at the moment.

An unnaturally warm end to October brings the managerless and big spending foxes up UP. Bearing in mind our pretty poor home record this season (and most others recently !), and the fact how teams raise their game when the chips are down, I had a draw in my head.
The noisy foxes were silenced after 17 mins, when Sam Baldock belied his height to get up at the back stick, and onto the end of a Carew cross for our first. This was quickly followed by Julien Faubert hitting a good 20 harder into Schmeichel the youngest bottom corner for our second.

Faubert seems to be enjoying his new position and seems to be doing well at it, long may this continue. We reach half time comfortably in the lead. Happy days, its beer time.

We then enter the usual WHU trait on failing to protect or build on a lead, and let Leicester back in via Andy King. Carew is then subbed for big Fred and the draw looms as the most likely outcome.

To be fair on a rare attack at this stage, a route one play finds Fred flicking on for Sam to put away a calm finish, to go 3-1 up, and surely get the 3 points.

Andy King then scores a screamer to make it 3-2 and then we press the ? button and bring on little Freddie Sears. Now, maybe I’m wrong but I just don’t get it. He wasn’t good enough under Zola playing football, and definitely ain’t good enough under big Sam’s longer ball regime, so why does he persist, when Nouble is playing well for the gills and is more built for the job. Sorry Fred, I know you are WHU through and through but you just don’t cut it kid.

Anyway we crack on and ground out a hard won win from what should of been an easy job at half time.

We are now pulling away from the play off places and another 3 points on Tuesday against Bristol City should compound this position.

I am hoping to see Carlton Cole at least on the bench. He is our top scorer this season along with Sam Baldock and the two of them need more time together to get a long lasting partnership going.

WHUFC vs Ipswich Town 27/09/2011

Another “famous” night under the lights at West Ham. Our last meeting at home to the Tractor Boys was the 2005 play off final semi final which saw a rabid full house, brass bands on the pitch and a comfy win for the Hammers that ultimately led to our last promotion back to the big boys league.

Tuesday night, was a far duller concern, and needed to shake off the hangover of the previous Saturday. However the score stayed the same but with the result in the opposition. so what went wrong ?

Simply, nothing changed from Saturday, with the midfield being devoid of ideas and tackles. Bullard and Bowyer played us off the pitch, and they were quicker in every department.

Beware false prophets !. Mr Nolan was brought in as the free scoring replacement for Scott Parker, and started well; until Parker left. Now he looks lost but worse still, off the pace. Noble is no better, as both are trying to fill the same void.

Sam Baldock played and looked lively, and unlikely to be muscled out, unlike Sears, but didn;t get any service from our midfield. CC again tried his best but needs more ball to feet rather than eight foot in the air.

Faye was superb again and looks a quality buy.

In short the Tractors Boys deserved the win, but had to work for it, and surprise surprise, east end old boy Bowyer popped up in the dying minutes to secure the win.

BFS has some big work to do this week, before the Palace game, and to be fair, it’s what he is paid to do.

We have been very lucky that other results have gone for us this week, but we cannot afford to lose out again this week, albeit to an inform Palace team.

COYI

WHU vs Peterborough . 23/09/2011

I won’t be very descriptive about this game as after sitting their for 90 minutes i’m not sure if it actually happened. I cannot remember the last time i watched a game with so little happening. I’m sure both teams were trying, but i just didn’t notice it.

Our midfield, especially our scorer, Mr Noble, were useless in the extreme, the missed pass / tackle count must of gone through the roof on BSF’s statometers.

This needs to be sorted quickly, else Ipswich will tear us apart tomorrow.

Can someone tell me why CC gets slagged off all the time when it is blatantly not his fault. This 4-5-1 doesn’t suit him, but it does seem to suit Carew, who is only getting the last 10 to close games out.

One ray of sunshine was Abdoulaye Faye who seemed to be very tidy and assured at the back. This was the first time I’ve seen him play, and he looks adequate back up while Tompkins is out, and possibly should be in, in front of Reid.

Windows 8 – First impressions

Microsoft have now released a developer preview copy of their next Windows Desktop OS. This is currently named Windows 8 (quell surprise !). The last move to 7 was very favourable as the previous incarnation (Vista) was universally heralded as a failure (a bit unfair in my estimation), so iwas interested to see the new changes.

Since the launch of 7, there has been some major shifts in the IT world, namely the move of all the major players to tablet and touch type devices. This has been led by Apple, but has been hung onto by the likes of Android and HP (RIP Web OS).

Some players had tried to port 7 to a tablet but as MS themselves said at the time, 7 was not designed for a tablet and therefore would not give the full experience, such as that on an IOS product.

We are told that Windows 8 has been designed from the ground up with touch in mind and the main difference from a user perspective makes this clear with the main interface not being the usual desktop, but the new look “Metro” UI. This is a collection of panes that represent different applications. As well as being easy to navigate i imagine it makes life very easy for non IT types to find and run their applications. All the favourites are there out of the box, eg settings, IE and Windows explorer, plus some new ones such as a twitter client and a facebook client (Socialite ? really ?). There have been complaints that really only works in a touch environment. I would say that once you are used to it, it’s just as easy on a normal keyboard/mouse interface, but does feel enhanced using touch. There is also a tile for the normal desktop. This is where the second big change comes in. The start button was introduced with Windows 95, and still exists in 8, but DONT CLICK IT, it takes you back to the Metro UI. This does takes some getting used to. Basically the desktop is only there when you really need it , as you should always use the Metro UI. Any programs you install will be on the Metro UI, and will open the desktop if its needed. I have found a reg fix to change the Start Button functionality back to “normal”, but it will be interesting to see if MS revert it based on customer feedback. I can see a corporate not really wanting the Metro on a normal PC, who will demand the normal Desktop interface.

Most of the other changes are under the bonnet, the key one being speed. Its supposed to be more efficient that Windows 7, and I have to say , on first impressions I’ll buy that. Very snappy.

With two views, Metro and Desktop, comes one of my bugbears. When you run a metro app, you cannot close it, so it all get a bit apple as you switch apps with stuff being in suspended mode in the background. Taking up memory, or more to the point on a tablet, taking up battery. The only way to close fully, is to go back into desktop and open task manager, and kill the process directly. Not the most eloquent of solutions and one easily fixed.

So I’m current running Win 8 on a Acer W501 Tab with 3G and keyboard, and it goes out as a working unit today, so I’ll keep this page updated with any major issues / great success’ I find.

Most of the desktop tools seems the same as they ever were, but for release I would expect updates to Media Centre and the promised out of the box install of Security Essentials. Maybe even on home versions, they should add Security and Live Essentials. They are essential for a reason.

I’m sure more to follow.

Nottingham Forest vs WHUFC 28/08/2011

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