Twelve months ago, Reading stormed into Upton Park and took us apart. We were shocking, they were brilliant, and we were consigned to the play offs - a miracle combination of results apart - as Reading chased down the title.
Twelve months on, and Reading arrived with Adkins in charge instead of McDermott and already down. But for 15 minutes at the start of the game they looked the better side, and for the first 20 minutes of the second half, it was like a replay of last season. 2-0 became 2-2 in the blink of an eye and until Noble released Nolan with a brilliant pass, setting up an equally brilliant finish, there was only going to be one winner - and it wasn't West Ham!
But with the arrival of Collison in place of Cole, order returned. The Noble pass for Nolan was, as I said, brilliant and Nolan's control and finish were sublime. Then Maiga came alive! For the first time since October he crossed the ball onto the head of a West Ham player, and Captain Kev did the rest. 4-2. Job done. Game over. Tenth place secured. And poor McCarthy's reputation was in tatters despite a brilliant save from Nolan in the first half. Today showed why you don't want a kid in goal!
The victory was pleasing but flagged up all sorts of concerns for next season. If Carroll doesn't stay, we have problems. Defensively, we struggled when Le Fondre arrived, begging the questions why the hell he doesn't start games for Reading and how the hell we will cope against quality strikers next season. Vaz Te was in and out, but mostly out. Cole looked old and on the wane. Jarvis didn't start. Jussi is getting very old.
There's lots of work to be done!
Player Ratings: Jussi 6; Demel 6, Collins 6, Reid 6, O'Brien 5; Noble 6, Diame 6; Vaz Te 6, Nolan 8, Cole 5; Carroll 8 Subs: Collison 6, Maiga 6, Taylor (Came on!)
7 comments:
have you been sniffing glue
Id give demel a 3. Horribly out of position for both goals and was all over the place defensively all game.
That was a shocking start to each half.
I think next season could be very worrying times ahead for West Ham. If we carry on coming out for second halves not trying or hanging on whatever you want to call it, we wont have enough to get back into the game. the fact we are linked to another 30+ player means we are going to lose our tag The Academy of Football. The football is appalling too.
Agree HF,despite the positives we got from this game,there were still worrying phases during the match where the team looked decidedly shakey.Defence still is a big concern,and we were second best in the possession stats yet again this season,against a bottom three side at home.How many games have we had more possession than the opposition this season...its not that many? This in itself is a worrying stat as it reveals an obvious fact: while your not in possession the opposition could score but you can't.I don't think this is just a matter of ALLARDYCES' style of play but its also a case of having poor passers and a number of players not that comfortable on the ball.I think even if ALLARDYCE wants to consolidate the teams 10th position in the league next season he will needs a number of better quality players
GOING DOWN IN TWELVE MONTHS NEVILLE
hf fat sam keeps talking about taking us to another level im just wondering what is idea of the next level is maybe europa cup wich no one seems to wanna enter i cant see us finishing in the top four so what is the next level hes got in mind for us i think most people can see we need atleast 5 players better than weve got at the moment this geeza rat is he gonna be another pogetets theres also speculation about cole oneil etc goingi think we need 5 players and we need to hang on to one or two others anyway now the seasons ended wel start getting linked to all types of players some good some even worse than wev already got
I agree we need some quality signings defo missed Jarvis today & why no Carlton on the bench he's a hammer through & through no way to treat a loyal player like that as for G & S spend some money no excuses about the debt plz its boring speculate to accumalate COYI
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