FAC4: Bristol City 0-1 West Ham Utd (25/01/15)

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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Hockley Hammer
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Re: Bristol City v West Ham Utd (FAC4R): match thread

Post by Hockley Hammer »

Turns to Stone wrote:After watching the game again this morning, I think we it was a really professional performance with not that many of our players really getting out of third gear.
I had to watch the two halves seven hours apart due to a family do. My mate was texting me through the second half saying how dreadful it was.

First half I'd tend to agree, but sorry once the Subs were made (correctly) I thought we were in control of the game and although it was wasn't a polished performance it was certainly professional. the two centre backs were excellent and we kept a decent shape pretty much throughout.

Some of there best chances, if it had been the other end, Carroll would have been pulled up for fouls.

Bristol City put in a typical lower league cup performance full of energy and fight. But we stood up to it instead of trying to be clever we saw it out. I never thought they were going to score.
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Re: Bristol City v West Ham Utd (FAC4R): match thread

Post by Hockley Hammer »

Up the Junction wrote:Interesting looking back at the weekend's Cup results featuring teams from the Prem against lower league opposition:
Ten games there, just four wins for PL teams - and not one by more than a single goal.
I said it earlier not one PL team blew away a lower league side. I think the fitness gap is not as large as it was years ago. These teams can compete for 90 minutes now and stop you playing.
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Re: Bristol City v West Ham Utd (FAC4R): match thread

Post by Up the Junction »

Hockley Hammer wrote:I said it earlier not one PL team blew away a lower league side.
You were the fuel to my fire, Hockley :)

Amazing weekend though. Never seen anything like it.
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Re: Bristol City v West Ham Utd (FAC4R): match thread

Post by Danny's Dyer Acting »

Hockley Hammer wrote:I said it earlier not one PL team blew away a lower league side. I think the fitness gap is not as large as it was years ago. These teams can compete for 90 minutes now and stop you playing.
Trevor Sinclair made a good point during and after the game on the BBC. Due to the large number of foreign players coming in to the Premier League now (and the top end of the Championship as well I guess), there's a level of skill being pushed further down the league system. You'd assume the same happens on the athleticism side. Obviously there's a number of reasons these players aren't quite good enough to make the jump to even the lower end of the Prem but it does mean that in a one off game with one or two factors in the smaller sides favour you will see the gap between teams be a bit a narrower.
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Re: Bristol City v West Ham Utd (FAC4R): match thread

Post by bullyhammer »

giantsteps wrote:
It's amazing though that we're now thinking he's playing out of postion if he's not in the hole when for the last 12 seasons (or something) he's been playing as a winger. He really is like a new player in this diamond formation when it's used.
Couldn't agree more. When we signed him, I wasn't overly impressed, as I'd never been overly impressed with him throughout his career. He'd always seemed one of those guys with talent, but who always flattered to deceive. But playing at the tip of the diamond, wow, I mean WOW! When we don't play him there, it's back to... meh.
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Re: Bristol City v West Ham Utd (FAC4R): match thread

Post by cockney farmer »

The half/half scarf sellers made me smile £10 before the game £3 after , they all seemed to be cockernees as well , thankfully didn't see any in our end the Ford Fiesta chant had made sticker status ...... Nice !
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Re: Bristol City v West Ham Utd (FAC4R): match thread

Post by Markt85 »

LincolnshireHammer wrote:Couldn't for the life of me understand why Downing was out on the wing again, for the full 90 mins too. I'm not sure why Allardyce persists to play him there in certain games
This is in no way a dig at Allardyce, or our Captain.

But do you think it might be something to do with Kevin Nolan playing in that position?
Bloody hell, downing was not stuck on the wing!
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Re: Bristol City v West Ham Utd (FAC4R): match thread

Post by hammer the hamster »

Markt85 wrote:Bloody hell, downing was not stuck on the wing!
I didn't think he was stuck on the wing, but through a lack of control and the fact Bristol City went at us at 100mph Downing was drifting around trying to get in the game. To be honest he looked a bit lost out there in the first half as did most of the team.
Last edited by Up the Junction on Mon Jan 26, 2015 10:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Bristol City v West Ham Utd (FAC4R): match thread

Post by Billydinho »

Downing was mainly on the wing at the start of the game and then switched sides and drifted in and out. Valencia was also forced wide at the start of the game and Nolan was playing a more advanced role. This changed as the game went on.

Is this the new Nolan debate? Pro-Sam supporters say Downing's role doesn't change, anti-Sam campaigners say he is forced out to an ineffective wide role.

Does every opinion have to represent a side of a fence?

:asleep:
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Re: Bristol City v West Ham Utd (FAC4R): match thread

Post by Hockley Hammer »

It looked to me that Downing went out wide because at least he knows the full backs will try to give him the ball.
He lined up in the centre for a sideways pass quite a few times in the game, but was getting the right hump as Noble and Song were playing it forward in the channels to Valencia and for a while Sakho who were just losing possession.
One of the things I like about him is he always wants the ball.
This diamond formation isn't much cop if the ball isn't moved around to create some space for Downing, as long as the passing is accurate we can still put Downing in space running at their defence, it doesn't always have to be quick passes. When the central midfield only hit about 2 or 3 /10 accurate passes it isn't that effective and terrible to watch.
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Re: Bristol City v West Ham Utd (FAC4R): match thread

Post by ironsjh »

I would say that performance was deplete, punish, destroy but we didn't really get round to destroying and we didn't really deplete either.
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Re: Bristol City v West Ham Utd (FAC4R): match thread

Post by carnage »

ironsjh wrote:we didn't really deplete either.
Bristol were toothless 2nd half bar a couple of crosses late on.
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Re: Bristol City v West Ham Utd (FAC4R): match thread

Post by irving boleyn »

There were,it seemed, about half a dozen goodish passes from the midfield to the feet of Valencia which came to nothing.
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Re: Bristol City v West Ham Utd (FAC4R): match thread

Post by kayahammer »

Just watched the game. Too many stray passes from us first half, which made them look better than they were.

Great cross from big Andy, and great positioning from Di afro :thup:
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