On and upwards! I got the formation wrong, not least because I had a brainstorm and forgot Noble, but what a great afternoon at Upton Park. No Beano, no Cole, no Collison, no Kovac, no Parker, no Gabbidon, all of whom would walk into the Sunderland team, and we tonked them - well Tomkinsed them anyway.
All the team were heroes in the circumstances - it would have been so easy to accept a draw and blame the casualty list - but three stood out for me. Stanislas and Tomkins obviously, when young kids from the Academy score it sends a thrill down the spine, but the joker in the pack was that old nag, Luis Boa-Morte. On this showing, the guy does have something to offer. Had his shot not been blocked near the end, he might even have got on the score sheet! Now that would have been a bigger shock than the 100-1 winner of the National!
From back to front, we played well as a team, passing and moving impressively and looking superior to Blunderland in every area of the pitch. Watching their performance, you have to worry for the Black Prats. How much have they spent to assemble that team? It has to be the biggest waste of money this side of Lloyds buying HBOS. Black cats, black horses, black days ahead possibly! The decision not to start Kenwyne was perverse and made Tomkins and Upson's afternoon so much easier. Was that Niall Quinn yelling "Ricky I want to talk to you!" at the end of the game or was it just a re-run of Bianca yelling in Eastenders?
Sad to see Spector stretchered from the pitch, let's hope it is only concussion. What on earth was Tristan up to on those corners? Noble clearly didn't want him out there and time wasting when winning 2-0 was negative and stupid. Somebody needs to tell the guy that at West Ham we play the game in the right spirit! The laughable moment when Tristan took the short corner, then danced round the Sunderland player and left the ball behind was a collector's piece but it led directly to poor Ilunga collecting a yellow card as Sunderland counter attacked. Those moments apart, Tristan looked better than previously. He moved for a start! But joking apart, he had a better than fair game, as did Di Michele. Perhaps the clever money was on us to win this one eh David?
Green was a worry though wasn't he? He is still flapping badly at crosses. Collins preserved our clean sheet with yet another "goal line" clearance but Green should not be putting his defenders in this position with his rushes of blood when the ball is lumped into our box. England keeper? Not on this showing!
But I don't want to end on a negative. Tomkins, Noble, Stanislas - all products of the Academy and the best of the bunch, Collison wasn't available. Let's hope Freddie Sears can find his feet and come again. These are happy times for us Hammers!
6 comments:
Well done for recognising when LBM has a great game. Mind you my heart was in my mouth when he got into the penalty area and seemed to hesiteate but credit to him for keeping his cool and spotting Stanislas run. It will be interesting in the next few weeks, whether Zola will stick with Tomkins etc. when others return from injury. Collins would deserve his spot back but will Zola drop Tomkins. Remember Downpipe? he had 4 impressive games and was dropped when Ginge returned. Glad its Zola making that decision and not me. I personally would stick with Tomkins as he seems to be very good in an attacking sense and we're still a bit light on when it comes to scoring.
Hi mate. How's the weather down in Melbourne now? I think Zola made the Tomkins / Collins call for this game and stuck with the handsome one of the two! Mind you, that decision may be reversed for the tougher games ahead. Tomkins actually made two bad errors in the game, dropping a yard deeper than the rest of the defence and playing Cisse onside. Understandable for a kid but probably very costly when up against Tottenham, Villa and Chelsea. Mind you, his versatility was proved by the goal and the move to right back.
The LBM ball to Stanislas looks better every time I see it. He threaded that through the proverbial eye of a needle and showed amazing awareness to spot the run and see the pass. I would call that our best pass of the season personally. But then, I did once claim LBM as God!
Its bloody freezing today (it actually got to 19C but here thats cold compared to what we were having) Its a tough call the Collins/Tomkins one I would probably tend to agree horses for courses but Tomkins will need to experience the tougher opposition to improve further. I expect we will see a bit of rotation on Zolas part I think between the two of them. I have always been a pro LBM supporter (not afraid to admit it), mainly because of his workrate obviously, so I still want to see him win the doubters over. Hopefully this game could be the start.
Next game is against Tottenham - not the best memory for Luis! Fingers crossed that he is a player reborn.
My best mate is a spurs fan, might invite him over next week to watch the game as we get all games live each week on Foxtel. I invited him last night but he couldn't make it. Probably a good job as I would have needed to replace the telly.
LOL. My best mate is a Cockyfool too. He has avoided me so far this weekend!
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