2022

Ever been on a roller coaster and half way through you start to question its safety but you cannot get off ? Welcome to last night at the OS, for our game against Lyonnais.

On the way to the ground, the atmosphere was a little flat compared to Sevilla. But still stupidly busy. Over an hour before kick off, the main outside concourse was squeezing room only.

Declan led us out as the 3rd West Ham captain ever to lead a team out at this stage of a Euro Tournament, and we should have fancied ourselves against a team 9th in their league. The warning signs were there however against Everton, a game which we got over the line but had to work.

With Lanzini out suspended (concussed ?) Benrahma made up the usual 11. As did Fredericks at right back, presumably because Johnson was still feeling the knock he took for England ? Or is Ryan being preferred again ? I suppose we will find out at Brentford this Sunday.

The game was pretty flat as well to begin with, and once again , same as Seville, the lower tier standing in 132 caused all sorts of problems with us (232) in the front of the upper tier. People were complaining to no avail, and tempers raised, but the stewards were not remotely interested. Personally I only get annoyed if someone stands in front of me at the cinema, and my view wasn’t that obstructed. But I understand some (including the 6 year old lad in the row in front of me) , can’t see and it’s not right. But if you are in the back row of the lower tier and everyone is standing, what do you do ? And if the employees of the stadium aren’t interested, why should the daytrippers be bothered.

However the stewards did get interested when what I can only call (judging by the amount of people who were “asked to leave” ) a massive fight broke out in 131 half way through the half. And we go into the break 0-0. Oh no we don’t. Just before half time, Cresswell was sent off for no reason at all. He put a hand on NDombele which wouldn’t have knocked over the aforementioned 6 year old. The ref has a checkered history regarding bent behavior, has already been called out for seemingly dodgy behavior this season and decided a straight red was the order of the day. Now, stopping a goal scoring opportunity is a red. Running away from the goal is not a goal scoring opportunity.

Second half was real backs to the wall stuff. Lyon to their credit can move the ball around and their right winger was having a field day. Johnson replaced Benrahma for Cresswell, and did his best. We had 3 attacks of note. One of which led to some scruffy defending, which saw Bowen open the scoring. We have missed this lad, and once again he does the business. We then had another chance about 3 minutes later when Bowen put a ball in on the break to a rampaging Antonio, who then made a complete mess of it, and I’m ashamed to say, the 6 year old may have learned some new vocabulary.

The last decent chance we had was interrupted by our second pitch invader of the evening, a life ban is not enough for him . Chances of being West Ham…..0. Twitter rumor mill puts him at Chelsea but who really knows ?

In between all of this Lyon got their equaliser from Areola palming a ball well wide but it got picked up by their other winger who put it in square to make an easy tap in for Lyon via their Spurs loanee (grrr) . We could have thrown it away with some nice judo throws in and around the box from Zuma and Fredericks in the time added on (8 minutes !) , but managed to keep it out.

So we take a draw across the Channel and hopefully we can keep 11 on the pitch, and put this tie to bed. The other tie is also open with Barca and Frankfurt also drawing.

One other football observation. Our midfield to a man (Rice, Benrahma, Soucek and Fornals) looked very out of sorts. Was it the formation of the opposition or just tiredness? Rice was quite sloppy in places, but he had to not get a yellow to be available next week, so that may have contributed.

Late entry to MOTM. Him and Zuma were excellent all night, but Dawson taking names in the last 2 minutes was a sight to behold, so well done Big Daws !

WHUFC vs Everton FC 22/04/2017

We came into this hoping to extend our much needed unbeaten run to 3 games and possibly secure our premier league status with a win, if other results go the right way. Everton are chasing down Man U for a place in Europe, so we have a game both sides need to win.

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WHUFC vs Swansea City 08/04/2017 EPL 2016-2017

First off, I know its been a while. Work and other things have been taking up most of my time and I just haven’t had the opportunity to put fingers to keyboard. Even my twitter posting is down 61% for April (@mrben09) .

Anyway yesterday was a beautiful day, and we welcomed Swansea to Corp HQ. The Swans are usually 3 points for us, but currently we are slipping down the table like a drunk octopus and although Swansea let go a winning position late on Wednesday night, generally Paul Clement seems to have turned the corner for them.

Continue reading “WHUFC vs Swansea City 08/04/2017 EPL 2016-2017” →

WHUFC vs Watford 10/09/2016 EPL 2016-2017

So another interesting day of growing pains in the OS yesterday tapped off with a poor performance.

Payet was back, and Antonio was placed back in his rightful position in midfield. Zaza started up top, and with the exception of Byram being played in front of Arbeloa we probably had our strongest team in my opinion. That opinion has now changed, but lets get onto that later.

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WHUFC vs NK Domale Europa League 3rd Rnd Quali. 04/08/2016

First off welcome back to the blog. Things have been pretty busy. I do have 2 more entries lined up around a trip to Vegas and a trip to Dubai but time has conspired against me. If there is any interest in the comments, I’ll fire them up.

So onto the show. The longer the summer went on the more concerned I was about our new home. Would there be atmosphere? Is my seat any good? Will it feel like home? Well after a sample size of one, I can say Yes, Fantastic, This will take time.

The ground itself is well laid out and as it was nearly full last night (53K), the atmosphere took a bit of knock early on as everyone is sitting with new neighbours, etc and was feeling things out, so after a rousing chorus of bubbles to begin with (slight lump in throat) things were a little flat (with the exception of both Kouyate goals) . However once people were settled things got going, and for most of the second half you could be in Upton Park, same songs, same sounds. Bearing in mind there were more than a few day trippers yesterday, we need to witness a league game to really compare.

The game. We were 2 -1 down from the first leg, which was a poor show. We still don’t have our Euro participants except for Randolph, so last night we lined up with Reece Oxford pairing with Winston Reid and Nordveit playing in the midfield. The bug bear of nearly all WHU social media “commentators” was also apparent, with Antonio playing right back, and Byram playing left back. This has to stop. Obviously losing Cresswell at LB was not planned, but come on, a professional football team playing a RB at LB, and Right Winger at RB. Especially one who has made it clear he doesn’t want to play there. Needs must, but we will get torn apart in the PL with this strategy. Antonio, for all his talents, is not a defender, and if this carries on I can see him leaving this window.

Seeing Oxford back was great and I hope not temporary. He obviously is not 100% on staying as some seriously big boys are sniffing around, and he hasn’t signed his new contract. 18 years old and £18mn quid could turn anyone’s head. It’s a worry if I’m honest, not just for us, but for him. At this stage Ogbonna and Reid are better, but we cannot let him go to City or United and become the next Scott Sinclair or Wilfried Zaha. This kid is being touted as the future of England, and surely we are in a position to now keep someone like that. It’s Rio Ferdinand all over again.

We started very patiently, very happy to keep the ball and not waste chances. Valencia as is his want, went off and lost the ball from innocuous positions once or twice but we are used to that now (10mn from Swansea? I’ll drive him there myself). One of our other new signings Feghouli looked lively, as did Kouyate. Oxford looked composed with Reid but in reality they were not under pressure. As is the pattern in these types of game, our opposition were all behind then ball and not bothered about throwing a lively tackle in. This makes getting real chance a challenge. However just after the quarter hour, a ball came out to Byram on the corner of the box. He took a shot, which was mishit and it went past Kouyate, who stuck out one of his Inspector Gadget legs to poke it home and put himself in the history books. From then in it was more of the same, and Antonio made a fantastic run down the line to rescue a ball destined for a thrown on. He got it under control and chucked it in the box and Kouyate got his second from again picking up the second ball. Maybe if Antonio was a winger he could get assists like this every week !

Randolf had little to do all half, and the extra week of training and fitness looked to be paying off, as this WHU were about 50% quicker to everything than the pale imitation of last week.

Second half was pretty boring to be honest. NK had a couple of long range shots and we tried some route 1, down the wings to Valencia and Feghouli. After a couple of misfires, Feghouli finally realised diving wasn’t getting him anywhere and latched onto a great pass from Noble to pop in the 3rd. Game over.

We are now one round away from the group stag so it will be interesting what team he puts out for those games. Last year Slav was pretty clear about priorities and let the fans know before tickets were sold. It’s also against the team that knocked us out last time, Astra Giurgiu.

So stage fright didn’t happen and we probably don’t need the Juventus friendly, but hey it wouldn’t be us without some element of poor planning. New place is nice for now, let’s see once the novelty wears off and I didn’t have to Q up the side of Queens Market for an hour to get the tube.

West Ham Under Lights

First ever corner in the new ground

Kouyate’s second

Not bad for nothing !

Reasonable Capacity

There’s nobody home

Exactly what it says on the tin

#COYI

MOTM Kouyate with Oxford a close second.

Olympics 2012- My tuppenth.

The Olympics is now over and the whole of the UK is missing it. The travel chaos never happened, the terrorists never came, and most unexpected of all, Team GB won a gallon of medals, and ended getting the overall Bronze in the medal table!

My Olympic visit came on Aug 9th, and i was lucky enough to secure a ticket to the stadium. Wooo Hooo. So after the grand total of 10 mins on the Javelin train, i was in a place i know like the back of my hand, Stratford.

This was not the Stratford of sulking hoodies and sink estates however. It was one of a happy throng of people with one intent, to watch the greatest show on earth. The volunteers made sure every got in quickly, and were on hand for almost anything. The Army were on the door, and as usual i was the only one of our group of 8 that got the full search experience.

Once inside the sheer scale of the park was amazing. Seeing it empty or on a pre opening tour, did not prepare me for the scale. There were 000’s of people and plenty of space to move about, with no queues anywhere. We took our seats at 6.30 to catch the Mens Decathlon Javelin. The one thing that took my geeky eye was not the power of the athletes, or the amazing stadium. They had remote control mini’s to return the Javelins ! How cool that is has no score attached !

P1060968 — Welcome to the Home of the Hammers !

Then some running and jumping, also known as the triple jump. This took place right in front of us, and was eventually won by Taylor of the US, who jumped what seemed like miles for someone like me, who had only ever done this at school.

Next up of interest was the mens 800m. Amazing. a new world record and an easy win for David Rudisha of Kenya. How long before the get into sprinting, they seem to have everything else sorted.

After a Womens 4 x 100 heat, came the main event. The Mens 200m final. Bolt came out to a ovation, and did not fail to deliver. This inevitability, and a double double of Olympic sprinting golds was almost overshadowed by the fact that the result was a 1-2-3 for Jamaica. I kept an eye on those guys and they must of spent an hour doing interviews on the zig zag for what was a <20 secs event !

Post the Womens javelin it was time to go home. This again thanks to the organisation it was a seamless affair, although I’m not too sure I would of felt the same if was going to St Pancras, but trains were leaving almost every minute.

One last comment before we leave the stadium. This place is a lot smaller when you are in it. If you are on the sides it would be great for football. So i have changed my mind ! Come on you Irons.

So, full of Olympomania, we head on to Sunday, and the closing concert ay Hyde Park. This is a short review as outside of the massive screen on the stage showing the remaining Olympic events live, it was the same as any other outdoor gig.

So.

Bombay Bicycle Club. On too soon ( i was watching the Basketball final – and cheering on the Spanish !). Average indie fayre.

New Order. No Hooky means nothing really to see, and they plodded through the set, as if they were at any one of a million festivals they have done in the past. Average.

The Specials. Now this was the big one for me, and like the Bolt they delivered in spades. Neville may be a little slower around the stage now, but the tunes are still there, even without Jerry. Quote of the day – Terry Hall- “This next one’s Chariots of Fire!”

Blur. Having seen them too many times, especially at “Final” gigs, I’ve got a little jaded. But as always Damon wins me around everytime. Another success for the Essex Boys.