Monday 2 January 2012

West Ham 1 Coventry 0 - Satan Gives and Allardyce Takes

Well Satan is fulfilling his part of the bargain. This was another stuttering performance - with the team again only managing a single goal against weak opposition - but incredibly, we sit joint top at the end of the day. Never mind events at Upton Park, Southampton and Miserableboro both suffered 3-0 defeats, with the Saints losing Lambert to a red card for violent conduct. That's him out for three games then - and he is a huge player for Southampton. Hull also lost so only Cardiff of the top 6 won - apart from ourselves.


It's beginning to look as if nobody wants to win this division. We were cruising in the second half but, once again, dropped back after taking the lead, with Coventry doing all the attacking in the last ten minutes. Is it our fragile mentality, or do teams suddenly discover how poor we really are when they decide to throw caution to the wind and attack us? I suspect it is the latter. More ambition, and opponents would find that the Emperor really does have no clothes. Once Reading stepped it up, they murdered us. When Burnley decided it wasn't against the rules to cross the half way line, they found scoring easy. Derby came out of the traps early and found our soft underbelly, then retreated and invited us on.


All the usual weaknesses were there to see again today. Faubert was awful. Time and again his crosses were over hit, or hit from such a deep position that they were easy to defend. He also did his very best to hand Coventry a goal on a plate by heading a cross directly up into the air and then falling on his fat arse to try to supply a free view of the goal. Dicks summed it up when he said, "With his pace he should be attacking the full back but instead he puts the ball in from deep every time." He did get to the byline twice but over hit both crosses, one actually going out for a goal kick. The guy is hopeless. Sell him!


Nolan scored the winner but was again a passenger for most of the match. I will turn to Dicks again for a balanced opinion: "Nolan’s done nothing...not a bean...but then he pops up and scores...but that’s what Sam says he’s there for.  He’s been nonexistent up to his goal." Dicks also said of the team performance, "You expect more from West Ham". Spot on!


The shot count, possession and corner count all suggest a commanding performance, but this was far from it. We were again playing against a poor team and again found ourselves hanging on at the end. I get sick of the old cliche "one goal is never enough" because it often is enough, but we really shouldn't be biting our nails and worrying as the game goes into added time when at home to the likes of Coventry City.


True Murphy had a good game, with two impressive saves, but a par score today would have been 3-0, with Murphy making a string of saves regardless. 1-0 gives us the points, but simply plasters over the cracks. The Allardyce Acolytes will say, "Look at the table" and Doctor Evil will tell everybody that it was a game that we dominated, but Dicks said in the last minute of extra time "If Coventry had played like this from the start, they would have won the game." And that's the point. We are still not controlling games.


A win is a win but when are we going to win with a swagger exactly? I forgot, it takes time for a team to gel apparently.

7 comments:

West Hammer said...

So, that well known football purist, Dicks, opens his mouth and you feed from it. Pity he didn't apply some of his man management and organisational skills when he was given a chance of being a manager. Everyone is an critical expert. We're a Championship club - you expect far too much from our limited players/squad. As you point out, other teams are losing as well. BFS can't sort our mess out in a single season. We've been absolute dog wotsit for years. It'll take just as long to correct this mess ie getting high earning low achieving players, on long contracts, out and hungry players in.

Anonymous said...

"West Ham 1 (Won)..." and HF moans.

Didn't see the game but most reports suggest West Ham were in control until the last few minutes. 22 shots and a MOM performance from the Coventry goalkeeper.

Anyway joint top to start the New Year. Southampton and Middlesborough are stuttering. The early season bets on automatic promotion in 2012 are looking good.

Never mind HF. I am sure you will find something else to moan about.

No doubt you will lay into QPR again after the result today. At the end of the season I think you will be again disappointed when they avoid relegation.

Happy New Year.

Anonymous said...

I read a few paper results, which all claimed Nolan put in a man of the match performance. I declined to accept their views and waited for yours, and I was right to believe that Nolan wouldn't put in a man of the match performance!

Anonymous said...

I was at the game today and we played OK. Nolan was not anonymous and Collison and Noble helped us control the game for long periods.

You're just miserable that we never lost. Admit it- you spent the whole time listening to your radio hoping we'd concede. Don't ask me why but its in your nature.

Anyway back to things even more important than you- Saints lost, so did Boro and at the end of our worst run of the season we went joint top. That'll do for most of us for now.

Sav said...

I didn't see the game so I can't really comment. However, we were playing at home against the bottom club and obviously, we were thankful to our Gods for not dropping two points at the end. That's not a convincing performance in anyone's book.

Our League position is more precarious than it was when we had a good gap between second and third. There are now four teams with roughly about the same points. Two of them will lose out and miss automatic promotion. The way we are playing recently I think it is more a question of luck rather than competence on the field that might give us automatic promotion or not.

Dave - COYI's said...

You must be be the most Anti West Ham fan out there, why dont you start a campaign to get A Grant back, his style was so much better

FarehamHammer said...

Happy New Year to you Fanno !.Same old problems ,no creativity in midfeld,no pace on the wings.As always the opposition know come the last three minutes by putting a few crosses into our box a chance of salvation will be presented to you on a plate.I wonder what's the reasoning behind such confidence ?.Still a win is a win.But Danny Potts bless him has certainly provided with me with a few laughs today.Hammer of the month..well im afraid if it had been cricket thoese at SBOBET responsibile for the outcome of such a farcial decision would of been charged for match fixing .But i've just spotted this gem. :Im glad to see people agree with me.... ;).Well done Potts !."Danny Potts has been named SBOBET player of the month,ahead of Green &Tomka.We 'all' know he had a good debut,but people were suggesting he had an average/bad game at Brum when 'I' suggested otherwise ".You couldn't make it up.