West Ham Utd 3 Fulham 1 (18/01/09)

[Clacton-ammer]

What sort of a reception did Pantsil and Zamora get?

From where I was the Z man got a great reception, also when substituted a little rendition of Zamora was a great touch and fully deserved Paintsil was decent enough but af half time Paintsil was loved by the vast majority again, especially as he thought he was still playing in Claret & Blue.

If people were not sure if we done good business with letting them go then there can be no doubts after yesterday, although I thought the Z man gave Upson a tough time in the air, other than that it was all us.

Good performance for me yesterday, DDM done well but if Bellendamy does go then we MUST replace him with another pacey forward, plus I know it's well documented but our midfield quartet were bang on the money, Collison if he continues as he is, is going to be one top player

[Puff Daddy]

Never before in the history of human conflict can so much be indebted from so few to many. With apologies to Sir Winston Churchill.

[WestHamIFC]

http://www.goal.com/en/news/735/west-ham/2009/01/18/1066743/gianfranco-zola-baffled-by-silent-upton-park

http://www.goal.com/en/news/735/west-ham/2009/01/18/1066743/gianfranco-zola-baffled-by-silent-upton-park

'Zola was baffled at the silence in the crowd, believing that the atmosphere could have been a little bit more helpful to the home side.

The Italian added: "I thought the match had a strange atmosphere, it was a bit flat at the beginning but we made it happen and I told them I was proud of them.

"It was like we were playing in a very silent place, I couldn't understand.."'

[Matt of iron]

Time of day + constant negative press + playing bloody Fulham = crap.

[Bobby Orangeboom]

I actually thought that on the Tele, the second half sounded like the best aptmosphere so far this Season..

I must have been wrong & lagging...

[dapablo]

It's just after church everybody is all sung out.

[bumpkinhammer]

Maybe he is a bit mutton.
Pardon.

[sicknote]

because our crowds forgotten how to back its own players at the boleyn ground, more intent on abusing our own or spurs or chelsea even when not playing either of the above, away from home we are fine

yesterday was alsop very quiet from the away end, plus blame a 1 30 kick off too never seen a good lunchtime atmosphere at the boleyn even when it was standing room only

[hammersgirl7573]

I didn't think it was too bad at all and got texts from friends watching it on the TV saying how loud it all sounded! I blame it on the dugouts being in the morgue stand of the stadium aka DM! My advice - sit somewhere else Mr Zola!

[Georgee Paris]

Craig Bellamy, woah
Craig Bellamy, woah
He's off to Man City
to suck his Mum's titty...

best song of the season!

[il_martello_di_genovesi]

It was fine after we scored the 2nd goal. Konchesky's goal kind of shocked us, and the players lost momentum, and it affected the crowd. Sometimes it works both ways...we can give the players the lift by singing all game, but they need to give us something to sign about too. It's no surprise that if were getting beaten 2-0, but were trying hard, and the players were seen giving 100%, we're happy.

As soon as we came out the 2nd half, and started to go at them again...the crowd were well behind them, and the atmosphere was fine. Zola said that himself.

[beckton]

I thought it was even more quiet than usual, Fulham were very quiet as well.

It livened up a little in the second half.

[hammer it home]

Craig Bellamy, woah
Craig Bellamy, woah
He's off to Man City
to suck his Mum's titty...

best song of the season!

Or from the CL:

Craig Bellamy woah
Craig Bellamy woah
he's off to ***** hart lane
to join that c*nt jermain

[Alf Garnett's (Ex) Missus]

because our crowds forgotten how to back its own players at the boleyn ground, more intent on abusing our own or Sp*rs or chelsea even when not playing either of the above, away from home we are fine

yesterday was alsop very quiet from the away end, plus blame a 1 30 kick off too never seen a good lunchtime atmosphere at the boleyn even when it was standing room only

Agreed - I know Fulham is close to Chelsea but ffs do we have to sing songs about them every game?

[hammer2192]

Well there was that stage after Koncheskey scored when the stadium went silent, even the Fulham fans were quiet whilst singing, I guess it was because of the KO time, I thought the atmosphere was average overall, it was much better in the second half and another reason for it being quiet is that some of us just don't see Fulham as a London Derby.

[1Carlos_Tevez]

Its like that across football now each home team only gets up for the big games - thats why the away support is always better! ((Fulham exempt), its a shame but it happens!

[prophet:marginal]

All in all, a very useful result in terms of

1. Showing the rest of the Prem that the sale of one player won't badly affect team morale
2. Moving us ever higher in the table (although on yesterday's showing, Fulham's place was a mystery anyway).

I'd actually go so far as to say that, in different ways, Collison and DDM had their best games in the first team. Collison is tricky and determined. The whole midfield had a good day, in truth, but there were occasions when 2 Fulham players were trying to get the ball off JC, to no avail.

DDM's goal showed a poacher's instinct that we've rarely seen from Bellamy. He obviously isn't a replacement for our absent (flyaway?) Welshman, but I was well pleased to see the link between JC, DDM and Carlton, for the 3rd, decisive, goal.

Overlapping seems to have been practised more carefully recently. On occasions, Neill was supporting attacks for minutes on end in the final third.

I don't think, however, that we can get away from some of the wretchedness of the Fulham performance. Davies was cack. Johnson barely involved at all and they were clearly missing Bullard for any real spark in the 2nd half.

And, what of the ex-hammers returning?

Konch did well with the shot but showed how dozy he can also be. Paintsil is a clown. And Bobby did nothing right all game, save for some muscular challenges for one or two high balls into the box. Some of his shooting was so bad, it looked intentional, but the most important point was that I don't think he and Johnson linked at all - not even once - to cause us problems. That's close to £20M of striker and they were practically anonymous.

So, for the first time since his first game in charge, Zola has won a home league game by 2 or more goals. I enjoyed yesterday, even if the ground was a bit flat. The way we play through the midfield is a joy to watch sometimes and I never doubted for a second that Noble would put away that penalty, or that, once he had, we would beat Fulham.

Onwards to Hartlepool. Bring on Hull!

[Hindley Hammer]

Perhaps he should tell the club to let the fans stand if they want to.

[Puff Daddy]

The West Ham faithful have not exactly had a lot to shout about this season have they ? What with all the off the field shannigans and uncertainties about the club's very existance even coming under threat and at one stage and 5 home defeats in 6 consecutive home matches ; what can you expect ? Hopefully, things will improve from now on in.

[Chelsea Fan]

The trouble is, he was spoilt for years by the support at Chelsea