How many chances did we create? None. Oh yes we scored, but only because a dozy Brighton defender dwelt on the ball and Harper gave Nolan seven eighths of the goal to shoot at. Even then Captain Kev put it so close to the Barcodes' understudy that he got both hands to the ball. Fortunately for us, his positioning was so poor that he simply deflected it into the corner of the goal. Nolan did his turkey celebration and he was spot on. It was a shocking shot which my Mum would have saved had somebody sorted out her positioning for her.
And apart from that, what was there? Did we string three passes together all night? If so, I missed it. Who played well? Faubert was shit. Nolan, the goal apart, was anonymous offensively. Collison barely touched the ball after the third minute. Carew was ordinary at best. Diop was ponderous. Noble was dozy. McCartney overhit freekicks appallingly. O'Brien was done a couple of times out on the right and never crossed the halfway line all night. Both Faye and Reid were dragged out of position during the last 15 minutes of the first half. Sears buzzed around a bit after he came on but the end product, as usual, was poor. Piquionne floated like a butterfly and stung like...a butterfly. And Baldock was brought on for two minutes! Almunia had to make one save all night!
At one stage, the corner count stood at 8-0 in Brighton's favour and the possession 65% to 35% in the Seagull's favour. That is shameful. It was crude, cynical, unimaginative, defensive, long ball, inept, tedious, embarrassing stuff, Doctor Evil football at it's very worst. And why? Brighton were there for the taking. A decent team playing 4-4-2 could have taken them apart but Harper had a night off apart from that lucky, lucky, Nolan strike. Dear God when we won two corners, we took them short and we had the farcical situation for the second of a return pass from Faubert to Noble, with "Mr West Ham" standing offside. What a joke!
We are in second place, the apologists will scream. We are five points ahead of Leicester and they have just sacked their manager I will reply. Brighton have shit players trying to play decent football; we have a decent bunch of players and Allardyce is shrouding them in a cloak of fear. You guys can kid yourselves if you like but I know that I witnessed one of the most mediocre West Ham performances I have ever seen tonight. If that is football, then football as a spectator sport is dead.
Player ratings:
Almunia 7; O'Brien 5, Faye 6, Reid 6, McCartney 6; Diop 5, Noble 5, Faubert 5, Nolan 5, Collison 4, Carew 5 Subs: Sears 6, Piquionne 5, Baldock - did he get a kick?
Noble only a 5? Man of the match in my opinion. Won the ball all the time, and the most creative player out there today.
ReplyDeletePiquionne 5? Was he even on the pitch? Invicible after he came on.
kevin in Manchester writes
ReplyDeleteRespect the points, dear boy, respect the points. Championship football is nervy, ugly and riddled with mistakes all that matters is mental strength. Seven away games ; four wins, two draw and a loss is table topping form - you may be right we could collapse but I say again the the championship is a shifting scene. Not until the end of the season can you fathom which was a good win and which a routine one which was a bad loss or one to take on the chin- we are club in transition and are doing as well as can be expected - I know you want to see us stroll through the division in style but it ain't going to happen- remember we had three or four first team starters missing tonight and did well to repluse the Brighton assualt.
Most creative tonight? That's like identifying one of the eunuchs as Mr Big Bollocks!
ReplyDeleteI'm so fed up of this long-ball rubbish. I've got tickets for the Leicester game on Saturday and unless there's a big improvement in our performances, it'll be the last game I attend whilst Allardyce is in charge. As you rightly say, if we'd just back ourselves and play football, we'd thrash teams like Brighton. I want my team to win, but it's embarrasing to see my team abandon the way it's always played football.
ReplyDeleteSpot on Tommy. Kevin, we had nothing to repulse, Brighton were shit. They will finish in the bottom half of the table, mark my words.
ReplyDeleteSo what did you expect when we appointed LLardyass then Fanno? Play beautiful football? because I know you didn't, LLardyass is only interested in 2 things..foremost is his own ego & secondly is results.
ReplyDeleteHe will be a happy camper tonight because both were given a massive boost, we have sold our soul to the devil to get us out of this purgatory of a league so pay the ferryman & learn to lump it (up front) as the team do.
I don't like it, you don't like it but it could be worse...your surname could be Glazier, stuffed at home 1-6 & then jump on the business jet to see your other plaything stuffed at Wembley by the Chicago Bears - priceless!
Jonny Hammer
Completely agree HF. I have been looking around at other forums and blogs tonight and I am ashamed. West Ham fans have become the stupidest/blindest set of supporters in the land. That is why I felt compelled to come on here and coment. Anyone who says that what we witnessed tonight is good for West Ham is a short-sighted fool. That was one of the worst attacking displays that I have witnessed by any team in my entire life. I have seen people comenting that Noble was man of the match. WHAT PLANET ARE YOU PEOPLE ON!!! He was even more USELESS than usual. In fact every member of that West Ham midfield should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves for the way they passively bent over and allowed BRIGHTON AND HOVE ALBION to ram them with about 70% possesion. Thank god they weren't a half decent team or we would have lost that game about 4-0.
ReplyDeleteWhat has become of our beloved club and the majority of it's supporters?
HF, I think Kevin is spot on. If you expected us to do a Newcastle and that anything less is a failure than we were doomed to fail. This division is about endurance and survival.
ReplyDeleteAnd now we will see the proper way to gire a manager and replace him with Martin O'Neill.
As i said before i wanted chris hughton as manager would have been a much better choice and he knows what hes doing in the transfer market and he doesnt play long ball shit
ReplyDeleteOh ye to all people who say Noble makes stupid decisions wtf was diop doing turning in his own box with 3 players behind him ready to rob the ball of him. And on another note i aint justifying anything but your rating towards reid is definitley to low no matter what you say he was absolute outstanding today and if it werent for him we wouldve lost
ReplyDeleteWe were awful but Noble was far and away our best midfielder on the night and McCartney I thought had a blinder too (apart from his free kicks....) We dug deep and under Lyall, Bonds and Redknapp, all West Ham advocates we still won games in similar fashion at times. Sam is pretty clueless at times but that was a fine win
ReplyDeleteAnother nail in the West Ham coffin Dave. They might as well rename us Newham Olympic, because as each week goes by, we move further and further away from what West Ham represent. The Academy of Football? The Bog Standard Comprehensive of Football more like!
ReplyDeleteCome off it Cheesecake! I saw Noble pass the ball into touch twice! His two short corners were utterly brainless. He lost possession in his own half at least twice and his positional play once he was the designated the holding midfielder was poor. I normally defend the guy but I saw nothing to inspire tonight!
ReplyDeleteThat is our best win this season. Allardyce got it spot on tonight. He knew they're players weren't good enough to trouble almunia and we let them play and capitalised on a poor mistake. Yeah we played poor in terms of attacking and ourpassing was way off but considering we won that game and played badly is good signs. Oh and by the way, our defence was outstanding, yeah mccartneys crosses were poor and O'brien didnt really go over the half way line but defensively they were brilliant, and the amount of blocks reid did was untold. You need to look at the positives in games mate. Yeah we were poor attacking but we won away from home and our tactics tonight were spot on.
ReplyDeleteWest Ham are starting to resemble a rugby team than a football team with their utterly ugly, turgid and neanderthal like style of hoofball.
ReplyDeleteThe question remains, is it right to sell your principles in order to achieve the desired result?
shit we were shit carew was shit and all the rest were shit apart from almnuia who was less shit.... did i say we was shit
ReplyDeleteI don't agree at all, HF. We can't have it both way. We were relegated by a country mile last season, so to even suggest we should run ragged over the N is ridiculous. You often and rightfully claimed we played like crap most of the last two plus years. Our players were crap, and we were outclassed. Is there a huge gulf between Wigan and Brighton? I'm not so sure. So if you lose 3-2 at Wigan like we did last year, it stands to reason we shouldn't destroy all in our path this year.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm not saying we are great. I am not looking through claret colored glasses. I'm saying we are a bit better than last year, playing somewhat lesser competition on average, and the results are appropriate.
It is not often I can say that I totally agree with HF, but I do. Your article is spot on and reflects my feelings about the game. I am thankful for the three points but as far as the performance is concerned, this was perhaps one the worst, if not the worst this year. We couldn't put 3 passes together and we kept giving them the ball back for almost 90 minutes! HF is right to point out that if we were up against a better team we would surely not have won the game.
ReplyDeletethis was simply put, horrible football! although i think our defending improved in the second half, it was nervewrecking to watch...im happy with the 3 points, but the game itself will quickly be forgotten..
ReplyDeletespot on HF absolute toilet 3pts at any cost is not for me I know I said I'll never pay to watch an Allardyce team but I never thought it would come to I don't even WANT to watch West Ham
ReplyDeleteBeing stuck in the States, it's a real treat when I actually get to watch a game.
ReplyDeleteMaybe next time I'll go shopping with the wife. Can't be any worse than that 90 minutes of shite.