2012

After the hiding we took at our last home game against Reading, WHU today set sail to beat two objectives. First off the home record and secondly 3 points to apply pressure on Reading and Southampton for automatic promotion into the Premiership.

Neither was achieved honestly. WHU dominated the first half and found themselves 2 nil down by the half hour mark, due to two bad errors by the team when trying to push out. A goal back by Vaz Te, should of got WHU back in contention for half time, but a further goal by Burke about a minute afterwards left WHU struggling 3-1 down at half time.

This was now shit or bust time, and as much as we pushed nothing happened apart from the atmosphere got better and better. once again a crowd that has been treated to some dire football this season got behind a team that frankly dont deserve it.

Carlton Cole has been a much maligned figure the past month or two, but showed his class on 70 minutes, by actually being allowed to use his feet and dropping off the play to smash home a second for the Hammers. Then it was really game on, with more and more pressure. With a minute to go , Chris Burke handled and Vaz Te equalised from the spot, which Birmingham probably thought was a disaster but on reflection was about the right result.

One player who has been praised greatly this season is Rob Green for giving international performances every game. This was his worst by a mile. He didn’t move at all for the first goal. If he wants to play for his country, he has to be at the top of his game every week, without fail.

It was nice to see two up top, but Gary O’Neill was played out of position and it showed. Why Morrison or Landsbury cannot play 90 minutes is down to Sam I suppose.

So, we can take the point bearing in mind where we were at half time, but Reading need to drop points against Brighton tomorrow. In reality, we still have the play offs to look forward to, but lets hope we dont meet Brum again along the way. We played them 4 times last year, and could do without 4 times this year !

As a side note, I think it was the first time this year both myself and the two Johns made the pub prior to the game. Sounds like Aus John had the better trip home taking the self named “Stella Express” home across the Essex countryside.

MOTM: Vaz Te.

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.

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