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.
We'll get found out if/when we go up - not before - because there is a vast gulf in quality week in/week out between the two leagues.
In the Prem - a forward goes one on one with Green I expect him to score. In this league I expect him to miss or Green to save it.
Both Hull and Bristol City would have beaten us two or three nil if they'd had a couple of midtable PL standard forwards - but they didn't - they had Championship ones.
Dele Adebola :lol:
Last edited by bubbles1966 on Mon Nov 07, 2011 4:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.
billybondsballbag wrote:I thought that he struggled in the first half of our relegation season, but he must've been about 38 by then and playing alongside a combination of Repka, Breen, Dailly, Minto, and a post-injury Ian Pearce who, whilst still giving 100%, had never regained the sharpness he had before his injury. There aren't many defenders who would've looked good in that line-up.
Lionel Messi would look two bob to be honest :lol:
Another season ticket holder and I have just returned from a holiday in the States where we only had sporadic internet access and the odd text to pick up information, having enjoyed debating matches on here it was interesting to note our reaction to each match with only the barest of details:
Southampton 1 West Ham 0 - Both disappointed that we lost, but not unexpected. Heard we conceeded goal from corner - very unusual - both agree we have to win at Brighton.
Brighton 0 West Ham 1 - Both delighted with result - necessary after last defeat - hear Almunia makes a few good saves. Both agree result more important than performance.
West Ham 3 Leicester 2 - I expected us to win, my mate went with a draw. Both delighted with win, three goals and Baldock scoring again - sets us up nicely for Bristol City,
West Ham 0 Bristol City 0 - Waiting at the airport after a long day we both think that knowing West Ham they will waste the opportunity to push on against a struggling team. Hearing the result resulted in a barrage of swear words and our partner's looking away in embarrassment. I console myself with another clean sheet as a bonus - my mate says there is no saving grace.
Come home to hear lots of the usual moaning - surprising considering we are still second, second top scorers in the division with the one of the best defences.
Missed the Hull game - went the other year, can't say I really want to rush back there - especially with jet lag. We pick up one of our best results of the season, three clean sheets in four games, and people still seem to only look for the negative.
To me we have had a good two weeks. Ten points out of twelve following a defeat.
Better to be lucky than good. I have seen many more "luckier" wins than Saturday.
I think people need to realise it's not luck when your keeper makes some class saves and the opposition miss some chances. That's good play by the keeper and poor play by the opposition. Nothing to do with luck at all that IMO.
No, I don't think we were lucky .We took our chances, they didn't take theirs .That's because we had two superb finishes and they were up against a top class keeper .
So, not luck, at all .
However, as Hammersam pointed out, on another day we could have lost by 4 or 5 - such was the ease with which they passed through us at times .The third team, away from home to do so .
It was the sort of game where they would have trufged off asking how they could have lost it 0-2 .The answer is we had better players in the right areas - and enough of them to make a difference .
Both of our goals were terrific .The second reallly was a joy to watch .
Romford wrote:
Its so annoying because its such an easy postion to play....just look at Gary Neville
I'd disagree. In modern day football I think it's one if the hardest. Having to defend and attack. The offside law is more stacked in favour of the attacker now as well so you have to be even more aware. The good fullbacks around stick out a country mile, which shows how tough it is.
I mean, to me, there seems to be a lot of individual errors and lack of thought (see the giving the ball away issues), which would transcend any tactical set up.
There's times where Allardyce has got it wrong and will do some more, but that's just managers.
Part of being tactically good, is using your players - even if they are good players - correctly.
We wasn't able to do it the first year we were down, despite having the best team and squad in the league and we also couldn't do it last season, despite having a better team and squad than many around us.
You can't just get a good group of players, then expect them to work. I think a lot of our fans assume you can and think that football is played on paper.
For absolutely certain ? No, of course not , but It's the way I'm leaning at the moment .
I do buy the transition thing : For my money we have looked more solid with Diop - how many points did we drop before he was fit enough to play ? There's at least three points I reckon we would have had he been available from game one .No sooner has Sam shored us up at the back , then we lose the threat from set plays due to Taylors injury , so we still haven't seen our absolutely best matchday side this season .
But, for this division :
Cole, Carew, Piquionne, Baldock - I mean every other Manager in the division would salivate at the prospect .
Noble, Collison, Taylor, Faubert, O'Neil, Nolan, Diop, even Sears .......again , not too bad a bunch .
Tomkins, Faye, Reid, O'Brien, Demel ...........only at LB are we really light .
Green - an England keeper FFS .
We have, for this division, a blinding squad , and I've said several times Sam has recruited well , but I have a nagging doubt when I see the opposition playing the ball through our midfield too easily, that eventually someone will have a lucky shot and it will go in .
There'll be "another day" when we come up against better opposition with better players in key positions than teams like Hull. That won't be frequent in this league.
That little bit of extra quality that we have in goal and upfront compensates for the fact that our midfield regularly fails to thoroughly impose itself.
My nagging belief is that we'll end up 3rd. Horrible sneaky feeling that Birmingham might be real contenders.
bubbles1966 wrote:
My nagging belief is that we'll end up 3rd. Horrible sneaky feeling that Birmingham might be real contenders.
Hughton is good at galvanising his team and getting them to play for him, but I'm not convinced that he's tactician enough to deal with the probable loss of between two and five first-team players in the January window.
bubbles1966 wrote:My nagging belief is that we'll end up 3rd. Horrible sneaky feeling that Birmingham might be real contenders.
I reckon the Europa League will do for them Bubbs, so many extra matches and there squad is pretty thin. They'll be a dangerous side to play though when they are on their game because they've retained some decent player like Ridgewell and Zigic.
the pink palermo wrote:We still are not quite solid enough for me .
dapablo wrote:That'll do for now, will bet better, what's the fuss about.
rare as rockinghorse shat wrote:
In a nutshell.
We're still only just 1/4 of the way through the season.
Yep, know that Rars, and despite us conceding relatively few goals, I'm still not happy with how we are defending - as a team .
It's improving - as I've acknowledged , but it still isn't good enough .As enjoyable as it is watching an England keeper throwing himself all over the goal to save the day , it really shouldn't be neccesary .
My question is Pinky, is if the Fizzy Pop teams forwards are *****, how come we are facing a lot of shots on goal ? Means someone somewhere ain't doing their job, or this lot are better than they are being giving credit for (opponents that it).