West Ham Utd 0 Cardiff City 1 (07/08/11)

Relive every moment of every first team game since the beginning of the 2005/06 season. Our archive of matchday threads originally posted in the General Discussion Forum.

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Mr.Miklosko
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Re: West Ham Utd v Cardiff City: match thread

Post by Mr.Miklosko »

Time to start panicking? Certainly not. The right to feel bitterly disappointed and fearful? I think so.

I have admired Sam's arrogance and optimism over the past few weeks, but all that meant yesterday's defeat was just that little bit harder to take.

The side looked disjointed, with some problems concurrent with those of last year. That said, there were plenty of positives; Taylor's work rate and overall performance was obviously a major plus. I also thought Reid showed a lot more bite and determination. He still has a long way to go, but he looked more than comfortable to me yesterday - I know others disagree.

I have never rated Sears and was really disappointed after following his lacklustre performances during his Championship loan spells. He's a decent squad player but no more - I just don't think he'll win us many games this season. As for the game's other talking point - Illunga, again, I actually didn't think he looked too bad at points. Astray passes aside, he got forward at every opportunity, but the final ball was severely lacking.

This is the earliest wake-up call we could of received - and maybe that's not a bad thing. Maybe now we'll realise that dropping to the Championship doesn't instantly make Cole a 20+ goal striker, or that our fringe players will be able to step-up and walk it. Going forward, the fitness and pace of Hines will be vital, whether as a winger or front man.

Let's not forget, Cardiff know this league inside out and have performed consistantly over the past few seasons. It was a tough first test which we ultimately failed, but we'll take the positives and move on up. :thup:


PS Did not understand Lee Dixon's explanation for the poor level of football on show - "the players are tired". I despise that excuse. It's used constantly towards the tail end of the season, and now it seems, it's acceptable to use it at the start of the season. They're professional athletes who've had a valuable pre-season - they should be more than ready. I think it was more a case of nerves and the new players settling in to their new teams. No-one looked particularly fatigued to me? Anyway...
Last edited by Mr.Miklosko on Mon Aug 08, 2011 9:19 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: West Ham Utd v Cardiff City: match thread

Post by Hockley Hammer »

Some much better assessments of the game and our overall situation today, rather than the predictable knee-jerk reactions immediately after a game.

It is games like yesterday that Sam is going to learn about these players. Being good in pre-season and shining in training is not the same as coming up against a brick wall of an opposition and an over-expectant crowd.

Everything Sam said in his interview indicates he knows his Bolton or his Blackburn sides would not have lost that game, and that is what he has to change at this club.

I think he needs the players to be a little bit more afraid of him rather than the crowd and it is him they have to please not the fans.

We should have drawn which would have been acceptable in my opinion. Let's hope losing yesterday is the start of the end of the 'West Ham way'.
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Re: West Ham Utd v Cardiff City: match thread

Post by Kitt the car »

First time I've been on since the game and everything I want to say has been said really.

First half we looked very good, just nothing seemed to happen in the final third, second half we were poor!

I'd rather have started with CC that Piq, atleast Cole has a presence and would draw defenders to him to create space. Piq just wasn't good enough, didn't win anything in the air and not much strength as well.

Though Reid had an excellent game and Tomkins was as good as ever, I'm being impressed with him more and more with every game!

Before the game I'd have taken a draw and by half time we should have been 1-0 atleast, second half it was all them and they got the goal and we could all see it coming!

I think the worst part of the day was getting absolutely drenched!
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Re: West Ham Utd v Cardiff City: match thread

Post by SammyLeeWasOffside »

Hopefully this will end all the 'we are going to walk this league' talk for a while and allow the team to settle in a bit before we start getting carried away again. This is a tough league, every game is often the a coin toss. QPR romped it last year mainly due to having Tarabt who had flair and finesse something that will catch out defenders at this level. We don't have anything like that and are instead hoping our hard working players are better than others hard working players.

There were a number of bright spots yesterday. The back 4 looked good for the most part considering how little football 3 of them played in the previous 12 months. The midfield 3 is going to be a strength even whe Parker goes although we would then be a bit thin on numbers. Taylor had a good start and his set piece delivery is going to be a big plus this year.

We have the same weak spots we had for the most part last year. We need a LB, Ilunga is fine going forward but still looks like a calamity waiting to happen defensively (if i were doing opposition scouting this would be the side I would attack). We need a wide right player with O'Neill not available, I really want to be wrong but I have seen nothing in Sears that makes me think he is capable. It might just be all about confidence as his entire 90 minutes seems dictated by what he does with his first possession but for me he looks lost. I can partly understand this as he is still learning the position but he doesn't strike me as wanting to do the hard yards. A bit like Hines whenever he is told to mark someone or track a man he looks like a stroppy teenager who has been told to clean up his room. We also need to find a forward, for me Cole is the best we have now but it seems fairly clear they want him to go (either Sam doesn't fancy him or we want the money), Piq isn't up to the lone striker job he only wants to do the fun bits, Carew I am not a fan off but have spoken to 2 people this weekend who have worked with him at different times and both say he will do a terrific job for us at this level so I will keep my fingers crossed.

Overall a disappointing result but a fairly solid performance. We certainly controlled the game for the most part although I think 'battered' is slightly out of plaice.
Last edited by SammyLeeWasOffside on Mon Aug 08, 2011 9:24 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: West Ham Utd v Cardiff City: match thread

Post by simon1982 »

I'd play a diamond with the setup we have!
I know Taylor was effective yesterday but i'd ask him to play left back, he can defend and will be brilliant as an attacking full back. He can still take all the set pieces.
Midfield 4 of collison, noble, nolan (top of the diamond) and parker, with a busy striker and Cole...I'd go as far as saying that the busy striker doesn't have to be prolific, we have know one to pull a player out of position to create space for others and i'm looking at collison to exploit that as his our most willing runner from midfield.
Illunga would have heard the expression "if in doubt kick it out" he is the only one to blame, you can't be cruyffing the ball as the last man in the 90th minute.
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Re: West Ham Utd v Cardiff City: match thread

Post by the pink palermo »

the pink palermo wrote:Thought I'd pop back and point out we battered them for most of the game .
.
davids cross wrote:
I didn't think we did batter them Pinks. We had bursts of play when we got on top, especially a period in the second half but Cardiff took lots of sting out of the game with some decent possesion and the game went through very quiet periods where we weren't achieving much. As the home team we did enough to have won, to call it a battering would be doing Cardiff a disservice.
Bloody hell, there's ALWAYS one who want's to argue :lol:

DC - I know it's all if's and but's .............3-0 after 20 minutes would not have flattered us .After that , they got into it for the remainder of the first half .Second half I saw a little more even , but we still had the better of the chances , though I adnit Green had to make a couple of decent saves throughout the game .Off the bar, post, cleared off the line ......the Pinky ooooooh meter was working overtime at one point

As I say , an absolute battering .........................*

I'll praise the Cardiff fans who made the trip though .Their celebration when they scored .........can any of us really remember an away run when we celebrated as much as that .Absolutely bezerk , amd that sort of confirmed to me they thought they had done a smash and grab .





*Take away the hope, and there really is nowt left .I left absolutely gutted.
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Re: West Ham Utd v Cardiff City: match thread

Post by lukeWHU »

I said to my old man at half time that if anyone was going to make a mistake it would be Illunga. He always makes one almightly balls up at some stage. Was probably a contender for MOM up to the 92 minute. He is a liability.

For all his effort and as much as I would like to see him suceed, Sears is not up to it.

Piquionne - not a target man.

Parker - looked heavy legged to me. Why does he always seem so exhausted....?

Matt Taylor had a great game for us.

My only concern is our lack of width. Taylor, Noble, Parker, Nolan, Collison......no real winger.
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Re: West Ham Utd v Cardiff City: match thread

Post by Welsh Iron »

Avoided here last night as I didn't want to read the knee jerk posts.

Fair play to Cardiff, they came to ours to try to win, and the bastards nicked it at the end. How many teams are going to come and play 11 behind the ball this season?

This was an early wake up call, that's all. I thought we played well on the whole and deserved more from the game. We really do need a goalscorer and a left back though. Not digging Illunga out as up untill the error, I though he did reasonably well. Green should have kept the shot out anyway, but that's the way it goes. Their keeper kept them in it at the other end, in fairness.

It was a stupid idea of the Club to give them the whole of the STB stand. It made the ground look half empty on TV. Talking of which, the BBC coverage was ***** (watched it last night when I got home). At one point Gabby Logan actually called the game a pre-seaon friendly, FFS! Headbanger

The Cardiff fans I know were happy to be playing us at ours so early in the season as they thought they could nick it with us being nervous and the fan expectation being high. We will improve as the season progresses and we'll play a lot worse and get a result so it's too early for doom & gloom.

We WILL finish in the top 6 on yesterdays performance.
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Re: West Ham Utd v Cardiff City: match thread

Post by The Sherriff »

Really aint the end of the world, will do us more good than harm …. In a funny sort of way. Felt their was an air of superiority about us and maybe didn’t display as much urgency or respect as what was needed . Big reality check IMHO.

We may have attempted 4-3-3 but it was clearly 4-5-1 for which Piq just isn’t cut out for. Disappointed that the changes weren’t made sooner as it there wasn’t enough time to see them pay dividends.

Didn’t pressure the ball nearly half as much as what I thought we would, there appeared to be large patches of grass uncovered by West Ham players.

Thought Reid and JT looked good, Noble was the better midfielder out the trio, coming into the game more as it wore on. Joey did well though and looked steady. It will take him a while to reach full fitness. Think those 1st half sorties down the flank took it out of him a tad.

Taylor will be a real asset in this division. Nolan needs game time to shift that timber, he wasn’t as mobile as what I had hoped but it was his debut.

Freddie struggled unfortunately, least he has a work rate though and does his share of tracking. Piq didn’t do anything to justify his inclusion and displayed little interest.

There were times when we pushed the ball around nicely but it was all too infrequent. Don’t think there is any reason to go direct, clear your lines for sure but its hardly the division 2 of old. Play proper association football and we’re profit from the results.

Henrita actually had a decent game though the mistake for the goal was horrible ….. I put it down to old age. Don’t rate the player personally and like Piq and Faubert, would like to see them leave the club.

The situation with Scotty needs to be resolved, both parties are in limbo at present, felt this from his performance yesterday. Heartened by Capello’s comments about selection for him but we need clarity one way or another. The club comes first, Harry will wait until the last knockings before making his move. It needs to be sorted out as the team must be settled for the season. The lad deserves to be playing in the prem and in line for international call ups, he’s given us good service and will leave with my blessing certainly. He doesn’t owe West Ham anything but got the feeling yesterday that were waiting for something to happen or be confirmed.

This was a wake up call, teams will come to the Boleyn and put walls up. Its down to us to hit them early doors. Cardiff got lucky yesterday, we had numerous chances to score and until Illunga lost possession I never felt we were threatened. I honestly thought we were going to hammer them after the first 20 minutes but that never materialised. They had 3 attempts at goal, it was sloppy but not the end of the world. Reading lost their first game of the season at home when they achieved their record breaking season a few years back – it happens.

Donnie next week will be tough, they were unlucky at Brighton and should have got something out of the game. Injuries might play into our hands but yesterday proves that you cant take anything for granted in this league and we don’t have a divine right to return automatically. Need to dig deeper and show our undoubted class.
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Re: West Ham Utd v Cardiff City: match thread

Post by davids cross »

the pink palermo wrote: As I say , an absolute battering .
Cod almighty .... :lol:
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Re: West Ham Utd v Cardiff City: match thread

Post by the pink palermo »

the pink palermo wrote: As I say , an absolute battering .
davids cross wrote:
Cod almighty .... :lol:
Know your Plaice .
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Re: West Ham Utd v Cardiff City: match thread

Post by Syphalis »

in my opinion we need to play 4-4-2, we often had no outlet up front by just playing one striker.
We also had no pace, we looked very pedestrian and when we had the chance to counter after a Cardiff attack had broken down there seemed no urgency in our play.
Despite being expected to be 'more direct, physical & aggresive' I thought we were quite powder puff, especially with the tackling and obviously the shooting.
Parker looked like he was only giving 75%, he seemed to think he had more time than what he actually had and I rarely saw him tackle like we know he can.
Sears was anonymous most of the game, he's clearly nothing more than a squad player so I cant see why BFS started him ?
Piquionne was hugely dissapointing, he rarely won anything in the air, struggled to hold the ball up and when he got chances, spurned them big time.

On the plus side, I thought O'Brien was very good at right back and Taylor deservedly was our best player on the day.
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Re: West Ham Utd v Cardiff City: match thread

Post by COYI »

Thinking back, yesterday reminded me of a cup game - us, obvious favourites, coming up against a tricky opposition. We out played them for larger periods of the game and were solid enough meaning they created only a handful of chances but we were in the ascendancy for long spells. They were out to stop us from playing the way we wanted and fed off the scraps and they would have gone hungry until we get slightly complacent at the end, one mistake and the team that are desperate for the upset get it.

I'm confident this won't be the case every game this season. Sure enough there will be teams who "park the bus" and go out of there way to stop us from playing but that's what you have to expect when you are (were) favourites to win the league. I feel we need to start intimidating teams much more and create a sense of anxiety amongst our opponents by bombaring their goal with efforts and driven crosses that cause the keeper and defence to panic.
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Re: West Ham Utd v Cardiff City: match thread

Post by Tarbs »

Replace Illunga, he did alright but he never looked composed.
Sears looked confused/out of his depth, so sign a forward with pace to compete with him,
Perhaps a center mid to be cover for Collison as he will be starting once Parker goes.

Apart from that we looked alright, but were a bit leggy with no goal threat and were punished for it. Sure we will improve.
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Re: West Ham Utd v Cardiff City: match thread

Post by ymcahammer »

add to my earlier post i thought sears was **** and think we should get shot of him, he aint gonna make it trust me
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Re: West Ham Utd v Cardiff City: match thread

Post by Finishing Hammer »

Would also prefer Sears not take corners. Always thought corners should be whacked in and Sears corners seemed to justify my thoughts.

BTW - anyone notice how aerial Cardiff were? Very quick to lump the ball forward to Miller and Earnshaw. My first thoughts at the end of the game was wonder if the critics of Sam's perceived hoof-ball game would berate Cardiff? Haven't seen one comment yet? :think:
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Re: West Ham Utd v Cardiff City: match thread

Post by Matt of iron »

Just woke up.

Still pissed off.

Cannot believe we lost AGAIN.
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Re: West Ham Utd v Cardiff City: match thread

Post by west ham15 »

Matt of iron wrote:Just woke up.

Still pissed off.

Cannot believe we lost AGAIN.
This will make your day even better, The last time we won a competitive match was against Stoke @ home and we won 3 - 0

Back in March!
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Re: West Ham Utd v Cardiff City: match thread

Post by Charle Hammer »

Our need for a proven goal scorer was very evident. We need a greedy b*stard a Defoe type player.
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Re: West Ham Utd v Cardiff City: match thread

Post by The Moth »

Finishing Hammer wrote: BTW - anyone notice how aerial Cardiff were? Very quick to lump the ball forward to Miller and Earnshaw. My first thoughts at the end of the game was wonder if the critics of Sam's perceived hoof-ball game would berate Cardiff? Haven't seen one comment yet? :

Truely ridiculous comment :lol:
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