Blackpool 1 West Ham Utd 3 (02/02/11)

[shammy]

That was the most balanced West Ham side I've seen in over two seasons. We have a decent team now.

Yes i agree, the balance looked right, but there is a crucial centre back problem. Without Upson we look lightweight, Tomkins/Reid/Da Costa will all make at least one blunder each per match and better teams than Blackpool will punish us.

[Hambrosia Stu]

That was the most balanced West Ham side I've seen in over two seasons. We have a decent team now.

Spot on.
That was the biggest plus for me.
Sure, there were a lot of good individual performances. In fact I can't think of a player who didn't do well.

But, for me, the biggest joy was watching a team with 2 proper full backs who can defend solidly, yet offer a different dimension when we're going forwards. I thought our flank play was excellent, not least due to the FB's pushing up and helping out when we were attacking. I never thought I'd experience such joy watching Wayne Bridge!!!

We were well organised, I thought Tomka was immmense, and Parker did a lot of good work in front of the back 4. And Keane's influence shouldn't be under-estimated. Although he did seem half a yard off the pace to me, his understanding of the game, and how to make the most out of space when attacking seemed to be passed on to our forward line.

Very encouraging overall

[HarrowInnHammer]

Btw did anyone see Green taunt the Blackpool fans at the end after they'd been giving him stick, was brilliant!

[myladswill]

Thank God we didnt sell Piquionne to Sunderland for £4m..as some posters believed it was a good deal..

No names mentioned

BTW, do you think you are going to collect on your "Marlon Harewood to score 15 goals this season" bet? Only 11 to go!

[Aceface]

What exactly did Reid do wrong? Big pressure out their tonight...the boy done alright for me. Loads of heart.

I thought he did well, dunno what some people are complaining about.

After probably not even expecting to play, he gets brought on early doors does pretty much did what we needed him to do. We didn't concede a goal through the centre the entire game, he didn't give away any free kicks or penalties, and he got his head to a lot of balls in the air, which is something that only really Piquionne in our team otherwise does with any regularity.

I thought he and Tomkins did well last night - we got an onslaught in the final 15 mins and in the end they didn't really look close to scoring.

[Aceface]

Charlie Adam is a niggly little **** isn't he? The number of - I'm being generous here - "loose boots" he managed to get into our guys was pretty incredible - half of the team must have woken up with pretty sore lower legs today

[Yea Why Not]

Charlie Adam is a niggly little sh*t isn't he? The number of - I'm being generous here - "loose boots" he managed to get into our guys was pretty incredible - half of the team must have woken up with pretty sore lower legs today

Ye I agree. But then we could do with a few like that, no?

[BoB_On]

Btw did anyone see Green taunt the Blackpool fans at the end after they'd been giving him stick, was brilliant!

How did he taunt them?

[BoB_On]

UTJ where or when are the managers match comments up?

[ashbanki]

Let's not kid ourselvs just yet - Last night was all aout taking those chances we always create and not getting pushed back by a pretty poor team.
LBM was an absolute liability with his kamakazi defending - That's the second time in as many games he has backheeled it to the oppo (will be a lot happier when Hitz demotes him further.A convincing home win against Birmingham will banish all thoughts of that two bit cup and have me believing that we can actually match the "great escape" (minus the £35m fine of course).

[irving boleyn]

Of course we were better balanced..

No Faubert,Kovak or Cole, all who bring down the average contribution of the team.

The replacements are regular Prem quality players

A proper overlap by Bridge..first of the season by a full back was a highlight for me.

.

[Tarbs]

Think last nights game showed that a few signings who have quality also affect the players around them. Many of our players were clearly motivated by this.

Tomkins for example, who is improving each time I see him, at one point was putting pressure on their left back by their 18 yard box after a corner. Now fair enough he was just a bit out of position, but he was playing with heart last night, and he wasnt the only one.

Was a little concerned with the space that the opposition had between our box and the halfway line. I don't know if this is down to the defence being too deep or Noble and Parker not getting back but better teams will punish us as, they have done already this season, if we dont sort this out.

Blackpool are on a slippery slope. Only 4 ahead of us, and their lack of depth could meant they will struggle to turn the the tide....hopefully anway.

[west ham15]

Quality game last night Obinna is just getting better and better which is good to see, 3 points against Brum is a must!. Our fans were top notch like normal.

COYI


I WANNA GO HOME
I WANNA GO HOME
BLACKPOOLS A **** HOLE
I WANNA GO HOME!

[Hambrosia Stu]

A proper overlap by Bridge..first of the season by a full back was a highlight for me.

I thought he was excellent. A joy to watch.

Not only was he constantly offering himself for a ball down the wing to the by-line (Parker, I think, played him in perfectly behind Blackpool's RB on one occassion), he also was providing the service for Obinna, or anyone else, making similar runs down that flank.

We were a constant threat down our left flank last night, and a large part of that was due to Bridge's intelligent play

[Bobby Orangeboom]

A much needed win..

Was a bit like Pub Football at times though, some of their Defending was absolutely shocking, especially start of the Second Half..

But we done the biz & happy days..

O Neill & Tomkins were my MOTM, Parker & Noble were very good too, as were Keane & Obinna & the two Full Backs.

But for those of you knocking Adam, with better Players around him the Fella could be awesome, his range of passing is superb..

[farmergiles]

Btw did anyone see Green taunt the Blackpool fans at the end after they'd been giving him stick, was brilliant!

How did he taunt them?

Gave them a fist pump, cupped his hand to his ear and them showed them 3-1 scoreline with his fingers. He might not have been so pumped up had the 'swing and a miss' clearance been goal bound...!

[stubbsy07]

Great result. Good performance albeit the last 30 minutes was pretty poor but I'm not gunna grumble at a 3-1 away win against anyone!

I honeslty thought every player could be proud of the effort they put in - they worked their socks off.

If I was being majorly critical, too much space between our back four and midfield - better teams would punish us. Green? wtf was going on with that corner? He should be dominating that. A big shout from him and the geezer at the near post (can't remember who it was!) would of left it.

A great start to a very important run. If we don't beat Birmingham on Sunday it is back to square one though, another massive game.

COYI

[Morocco Mole]

But for those of you knocking Adam, with better Players around him the Fella could be awesome, his range of passing is superb..

Yep. He still looked good in spells last night but you can tell he's trying to literally do everything to carry that team.
Class act but came up against Super Scott and The Cockney Pirlo last night and came off second best. No shame in that folks....

[Mr.Miklosko]

Great win last night, but there's way too much positivity on here so I'll say this;

Why do we look a different team in the 2nd half?

I know many on here are rather satisfied with our 2nd half performance last night, but at times I thought we had another Brum game on our hands. Pleasingly, for once MOTD didn't show the amount of opposition chances, but Harewood and Beattie caused us real problems and we just lost that 1st half desire slightly. We can't afford to do this against the bigger teams. Is it a lack of confidence? Cockiness? inexperience? Ineffective half time?

[Morocco Mole]

If I was being majorly critical, too much space between our back four and midfield - better teams would punish us.

That's been a problem for us since Mullins left - don't laugh. Kovac just runs round and points a lot and pretends to be a DM.
Pity we never signed Be Bop-a-Doo Wop on Monday....