Another Day, Another West Ham Victory

Some time last year, I ran a post entitled, "Another Day, Another Defeat". It seemed that whatever team took the field, be it first team, reserve team or friendly team, we crashed to defeat. The club seemed cursed, riddled with depression, devoid of hope and ideas. Zola was smiling but, to quote Macbeth, there were daggers in those smiles, and ever one was a stab through the heart of our flimsy bubbled dreams.

One year on and we are bottom of the table but the mood couldn't be more different. Smiles don't come so easily to Grant as to Zola, but he must be happy with our recent performances. The draw at Stoke was good - they collected more points in September than any other side in the Prem but couldn't beat us, the victory at Sunderland was superb, the crushing of Tottenham exhilarating and the draw with Fulham acceptable, given they are unbeaten in the Prem after seven games.

Tonight, the reserves won 1-0 away to Liverpool. It seems that the Scousers are blighted with the curse of negativity that afflicted us last year, whilst we, in contrast, have a new positivity pumping through the club. Some might say that reserve games don't matter but I disagree. Mood is everything, confidence is infectious.

According to regular contributor TIS, Sears was on top form tonight whilst Spence and Brown showed promise. That has to be good news and it is worth noting that Babel was playing for the Reds, so there was a test out there for the young defenders.

We played a friendly during the international break last season in a game arranged to build confidence...and lost. Times have hopefully changed... for good!