Sunderland 0 West Ham Utd 1 (23/11/08)

[hongkonghammer]

Very good result and very much needed looking at our coming fixtures. Good defensive display. Poor going forward. It was hard working but hardly creative. Very Curbs like performance I thought.....in other words keep it tight, block everything, run your nuts off but don't be over commit going forward. Seems Mr Zola has listened to his Assistant over the last 2 matches. Feel more positive about Zola showing a bit more realism about the team and the type of football we need to play sometimes.

Ginger Pele was fantastic as were Upson, Parker and Behrami. Thought Sunderland played into our hands with their lob it into the box mentality. Ginge and Upson will eat that up all day long against most teams in the Prem. It will be interesting to see how they deal with quick and tricky strikers like Keane and Torres next week.

Huge 3 points though and feel a little bit more confident that Zola is not as naive as he makes himself out to be.

COYI

[WalthammerUSA]

Very good result and very much needed looking at our coming fixtures. Good defensive display. Poor going forward. It was hard working but hardly creative. Very Curbs like performance I thought.....in other words keep it tight, block everything, run your nuts off but don't be over commit going forward.

Absolutely. Just watched my DVR of the match. Boring and pragmatic but effective. It was just what we needed to get our first victory since September.

Neill--Upson-Collins-Ilunga are the strongest back four we've put out this season. (And, yes, Neill was decent, even though I usually can't stand him.) Collins was MOTM for me, followed by Parker. Ilunga continues to look very good. I'd like to see Bellamy get himself in position to score a little more often, but he was a pretty effective pest today. Cole looked a bit out of form--he just didn't seem to have a lot of ideas. He had a strong work rate, though.

It's been very encouraging to see us keep two clean sheets after leaking those three late goals v. Everton. I really hope that we're finally starting to see Clarke's influence on the side and a little more realism from Zola. We all love pretty football, but not many fans want to see us play it in the Championship.

This could be our last victory for a few weeks, so it's a good thing we got it. Or we could turn the Scousers over at Anfield for the first time in 45 years a week from Monday...

[Bobby Orangeboom]

Oh & i forgot, thanks to Mr Keane for taking off Reid & Malbranque in the double Sub, that confirmed we would win the Game, thanks...

[party iron]

Oh & i forgot, thanks to Mr Keane for taking off Reid & Malbranque in the double Sub, that confirmed we would win the Game, thanks...

I thought reid was the man who looked like he might create some thing for them, was quite glad to see fat boy running down the tunnel

[Bobby Orangeboom]

I thought reid was the man who looked like he might create some thing for them, was quite glad to see fat boy running down the tunnel

He was, without a doubt..

Nice one Keano, Mate... :lol:

[szola]

Oh & i forgot, thanks to Mr Keane for taking off Reid & Malbranque in the double Sub, that confirmed we would win the Game, thanks...

You could've told me.....I was a nervous wreck as usual towards the end

[party iron]

Nice one Keano, Mate... :lol:[/quote][/quote]I would have a guess that reid can properly only last 60-70 mins of a football mach he is in terrible shape for a pro footballer.(there's hope for me yet) :lol:

[claret-hammer]

Nice one Keano, Mate... :lol:

[/quote]I would have a guess that reid can properly only last 60-70 mins of a football mach he is in terrible shape for a pro footballer.(there's hope for me yet) :lol:[/quote]

exactly how fat are you. :lol:

[Chavs]

That was an irrational rant from one of the most thoughtful and level headed posters on here mate.


But he's still a bell-end... :lol:

Ted i dont think you understand how much i hate both them and Newcastle!!!

[davids cross]

In the context of our season and in particular of our next few games it was the most important result for a long time. Just like to give special recognition to a few of the performances.

Rock & Ginge, an immense performance by both. Illunga had by far his best defensive performance for us, I don't remember him putting a foot wrong. Neill very solid, he knows the positional play of a right back and although he may be vunerable to speed he is a big asset when he's playing well..........Into the midfield, Scott Parker and Behrami, hats off to you both you left everything out on the field, the work rate was frightening and Parker has a great way of keeping us ticking away. Finally in the positive bracket Julien Faubert, thought we missed him last week against Pompey, wide on the right is his position and he gives us balance. Would like Zola to continue with him.

Couple of small negatives, we didn't offer enough going forward in the second half, didn't keep the ball enough. Cole and Bellars didn't hold it up well enough. Finally, on another day Ginge could have been sent off and/or a penalty given against him. He must cut out these stupid lapses in concentration, he also lost Lescott for Evertons equaliser. He could be a huge player for us, it's all there, just concentrate, other than that he was faultless yesterday.

And well done to Zola for getting the system right, 442 is what we do best

[smuts]

Defensively....that was brilliant. The back four were superb along with Parker and Behrami....sadly the rest of them were pretty poor.....Faubert, Bellamy, Bowyer and Cole had shockers. Will Faubert ever have a good game for us? I can't think of one instance where he looked to take the full back on.

I thought that the Collins/Cisse incident was never a pen to be honest....Cisse grabbed hold of Ginge's arm and was trying to hit the deck all the way.

Not a great game....but 3 points away and at least we played 4-4-2 again....so I'm more than happy! Mullins or Collison in for Bowyer next time Zola...Faubert benched, Behrami on the right and LBM on the left as well.

[w4hammer]

..anyone play in defence here.? If so, can you please tell me what defence coaching system the 'Turn your back away and hope the ball bounces off you ass' is all about?!

Our fearless leader does it each and every time someones comes down the wing...he stands off stands off, then leaps in air and shows his ass to the ball, its what some of the lads in my U14 team do-- he's a professional Premiership player FFS!!

Get in front, use your size, stature, presence get in the way of the ball or the man- and always always keep your eye on the ball!

Its not THAT difficult, is it?!

[QuintonNimoy]

..anyone play in defence here.? If so, can you please tell me what defence coaching system the 'Turn your back away and hope the ball bounces off you ass' is all about?!

Our fearless leader does it each and every time someones comes down the wing...he stands off stands off, then leaps in air and shows his ass to the ball, its what some of the lads in my U14 team do-- he's a professional Premiership player FFS!!

Get in front, use your size, stature, presence get in the way of the ball or the man- and always always keep your eye on the ball!

Its not THAT difficult, is it?!

The lads in your U14 team probably wouldn't get skinned by Andy Reid. That's enough to shatter anyone's confidence.

[davids cross]

What a c*** you are Di Michele. All the space in the world to run that into space. Brainless turd.

:lol:

When you are trying to run the clock down and keep possesion off the ball the last man you send for is Di Michele. You can count the footballing brain cells on one hand. Should have been Sears without question from the bench.

[Dan1326]

You could've told me.....I was a nervous wreck as usual towards the end

Glad I wasn't the only one, also felt like I played the second half as I felt so tired at the end :lol:

[westhamgardner]

Pleases with the 3 points whether we deserved it or not. Also noticed Blackburn are in the relegation now. They've been shocking of late

[Puff Daddy]

I'm thrilled with the 3 points ~ Luvly !! Put me in a much better mood today. Performance wise, to be honest, I think we look like a bottom six side, but here's hoping we can now build one that and even sneak draws at Liverpool and Villa, which I will willingly accept and beat the scum. That will do wonders for our confidence leading up to the Christmas games and enter the New Year with renewed confidence.

[roblo]

The boozer I was watching the game in was going mad at Carlton Cole. I thought he put the effort in, in a very isolated lone-striker role. Bellamy also ran himself into the ground. Cole wasn't tracking back on 90s minutes que "****ing hell Cole, get back you lazy ****". He's just played 90 minutes up top on his own, give the lad a break.

Then Boa Morte came on, que more "oh great, here we go". I tried to point out that "this is exactly the player we need to bring on. Can keep the ball, will chase balls down, put a foot in and not stop running", something he did until the 94th minute.

Great "Curbs sub" from Zola, in bringing on Mullins. I can see Hayden used in this role for the next couple of years. 1-0 up away from home, back-to-the-wall. Let him come on and sweep up the mess. He's brilliant in that role.

Sunderland were so one-dimensional. They're really gonna struggle this year. Luckily they played to our strengths. If they'd got the ball on the deck, played through the middle with Malbranque & Reid, they would have realised that Collins isn't the World class defender he was made to look-like yesterday. Cisse needs the ball into his feet or in his path. If they'd given it into him between our defenders, I'm sure it would have been a different story. Still, we did what we had to do, dealt with their "threat" and bagged a goal. Can't complain.

Can't get to Liverpool, but will be watching it on the box, then it's "THE BEST WEEK OF FOOTBALL EVER (TM)" with Spurs and Chelsea in the same week. 4 points from the possible next 9, I think we'd all be very happy.

[Bobby Orangeboom]

Glad I wasn't the only one, also felt like I played the second half as I felt so tired at the end

Oh come on Chaps, after they took those 2 off, all they could throw at us was that long Ball which was Bread & Butter to Upson & Ginge who ate it for Breakfast, all day ****ing long....

( & no need for any all day Breakfast jokes, you know what i mean... :lol: )

[Dan1326]

Oh come on Chaps, after they took those 2 off, all they could throw at us was that long Ball which was Bread & Butter to Upson & Ginge who ate it for Breakfast, all day f***ing long....

( & no need for any all day Breakfast jokes, you know what i mean... :lol: )

Don't forget we are talking about West Ham here, we could f*** up a 3 - 0 lead with 10 minutes to go :lol: