FAC3: Sheffield Wednesday 1 West Ham Utd 0 (08/01/12)

[the pink palermo]

I have been saying for a few weeks now that our squad is over-rated.

In fairness, yes you have . I agree the squad is weak .The fact is though we had half our first team on display as near as dammit - and that shows how we really are .Top of a poor league in desperate need of major investment in playing staff .

I posted the other week that Sam had actually done well to get this group of players into the position he has - irrespective of "style" issues .

I've been banging on for a while we need to look above Sam for where the clubs issues are .The owners have now had two full years to clear the debt .It will be interesting to see when the accounts come out on the 29th Feb how much more they have injected into the club in addition to the £24m they put in during their first season .

I reckon not a whole lot more .I'll be happy to be proved wrong .

[hammerdivone]

Wouldn't a tie in the next round have given us a few extra quid to pay down the debt though.....even little bit helps...

Away to Blackpool would have probably cost us money Ouston

[davids cross]

I know Jack Collison played, but was effectively AWOL meandering through the guts..

Strange that, I wasn't at the game but some have said he played very well. Steve Froggat on t'wireless said he was our best player. And my Sheff Weds mate on twatter ...

@Nobbyowl1983
Collison yesterday was head and shoulders above all, can't wait to see him progress, as an owl I was impressed!!!!

[mushy]

I also thought Collison was our best player.
Opinions eh?

[Hockley Hammer]

I was hoping to see Lansbury and Collison control the midfield and drive us forward. Sam made the right substitutions to allow us to take the game to Wednesday. We had Baldock and Nouble with a bit of pace, delivery from O'Neil and O'Brien getting forward.

Unfortunately neither Lansbury or Collison ever really got hold of the game so we resorted to getting it out wide and hoping for a cross to be converted. It didn't happen and I left another game thinking that these two are not the answer for central misfield as neither seems to take a man on. We have to find a player in central midfield who will run into the danger areas with the ball. This will help Baldock who makes runs but is wasting his time and energy as the ball is too far back to get him through. The slow build up play enables the opposition to get back and we run into a brick wall.

Wednesday played at least three superb balls through our defence because their guy ran with the ball committing defenders before releasing it.

I'm really hoping Noble builds on what was one of his best perfprmances last week in this respect. He might just be the player to do it for us. We have to find a player who can open up defences by running at them.

[Trifecta]

Steve Froggat on t'wireless said he was our best player.

He also slagged O'Neil and Carew in particular and the whole side in general. IIRC he was only complimentary about Collison and Baldock and reckoned that the rest were not only not good enough but didn't really care either.

Still at least eleven minutes of injury time meant we had a bit of a cup run this year.

[mushy]

I think I have turned into Steve Froggat

[Doc H Ball]

...The fact is though we had half our first team on display as near as dammit... I posted the other week that Sam had actually done well to get this group of players into the position he has - irrespective of "style" issues .

Hi PP.

It wasn't really half our first team though was it? Of those who started, Reid (returning from injury), Linda (out of position), JOB, Colly, Baldy (returning from injury) and O'Neil (returning from injury) were the only poss starters in our strongest X1. When the game ended, we had played Potts, Nouble, Montenegro, Hall, Lansbury, Sears and Boffin who had a mere handful of senior appearances between them. For a league game BFS would have played Green, Tommo, Faye (?), Noble, Faubert (?), Nolan and Cole. I have a feeling that if some of those had played we may well have not lost - I would have expected Green to save the shot, maybe Tommo to have covered it, Noble to take a better penalty etc. If he had played the lot of them, I feel sure we would have won.

The point I'm getting at is that BFS had the players yesterday but chose not to use them for the sake of resting them for a league game in 7 days' time. If he is not going to bother in cup competitions, I would appreciate an e mail from him to that effect because then neither will ****ing I. A lot of people don't seem too fussed, but I came out of there livid yesterday - not at the raw players but at BFS and his attitude.

A respected poster on here set out an eloquent 7 year plan under BFS. Does this mean he will write off all cups until around year 5? If so, he can do one.

[Paulo di Sissons]

Hope you all had a safe journey back and enjoyed your day/weekend.

The turning point in the match was the penalty save - score it, you win... the rest is history. Obviously I'm pleased with the win and that Hillsborough is a difficult place to come to and get a result (at long last!). Sadly Blackpool is our reward, and that might be a step too far for us and hardly a money spinner.

Great support by you - and think our announcer was trying to be funny with the song at the end, but misjudged it and got it wrong - he does the same to us when we lose and plays something he thinks sums up the match/result. Some see the funny side, some don't.

I like West Ham - proper club, proper supporters who have followed the club through bad times and not just glory hunters. I genuinely hope you make it back up this season and wish you all the best for the rest of the season. I hope it won't be too long before we can join you back in the big time.

[the pink palermo]

Doc - of course he could, and should have put out a stronger side yesterday , my point about half a first team was it wasn't a totally weakened side , it was a sort of a ....nothing side .Couldn't really see what he was trying to achieve - but, with better finishing we could have won , and I'm honest enough to admit that .

I wasn't too happy yesterday either, and as strange as it may seem , I do still believe in sport being about trying to be the best , do your best and winning within the rules .

In effect we devalued Sheffield Wednesdays vistory yesterday - and that's unfair on them .In years to come, when we beat Real Madrid in the Bernabau , I want to see us doing it against their best XI .There's no glory in beating their schoolboy side .

[Doc H Ball]

I hope it won't be too long before we can join you back in the big time.

Despite my annoyance at our manager not respecting the cup, I thought you deserved your win and was pleased to hear and see Hillsborough again.

I had a chat to a few Owls on the way home and all very friendly. Hopefully we will meet in 2 years in the top flight.

[Yea Why Not]

Hope you all had a safe journey back and enjoyed your day/weekend.

The turning point in the match was the penalty save - score it, you win... the rest is history. Obviously I'm pleased with the win and that Hillsborough is a difficult place to come to and get a result (at long last!). Sadly Blackpool is our reward, and that might be a step too far for us and hardly a money spinner.

Great support by you - and think our announcer was trying to be funny with the song at the end, but misjudged it and got it wrong - he does the same to us when we lose and plays something he thinks sums up the match/result. Some see the funny side, some don't.

I like West Ham - proper club, proper supporters who have followed the club through bad times and not just glory hunters. I genuinely hope you make it back up this season and wish you all the best for the rest of the season. I hope it won't be too long before we can join you back in the big time.

Yea good luck fella

[Kentish Hammer]

Whoever it was in row 21 that kept dropping their guts, you are a ****. I had the hangover from hell and your bowels really did not help my situation.

[brownout]

West Ham are nearly always in a promotion or relegation battle - hence the cups are deemed secondary and we don't make a proper effort to win them.
So given we'll never win the Premier League do we have to accept that after 31 years without a proper cup we have to accept that many of us will be dead & gone before we might win another one?
May as well go to Dagenham every week?

[Pop Robson]

Whoever it was in row 21 that kept dropping their guts, you are a c***. I had the hangover from hell and your bowels really did not help my situation.

I think they moved to row 26 in the 2nd half

[Major]

Whoever it was in row 21 that kept dropping their guts, you are a c***. I had the hangover from hell and your bowels really did not help my situation.

[James P]

West Ham are nearly always in a promotion or relegation battle - hence the cups are deemed secondary and we don't make a proper effort to win them.
So given we'll never win the Premier League do we have to accept that after 31 years without a proper cup we have to accept that many of us will be dead & gone before we might win another one?
May as well go to Dagenham every week?

I would say unquestionably there's a good chance we won't win a cup in many of our lifetimes. There's only three we could realistically win if you include the Europa League. The FA Cup is invariably won by a top 4 side and the League Cup tends to be won by Top 4 reserve sides unless there's a shock. The Europa League of course is probably the hardest of the lot to win given we barely qualify for it and practically never progress very far.

That doesn't mean in 9 out of 10 seasons we won't give it our best shot in the cups. It's just that this season, with 46 league games already, and a juicy carrot to go for (and an incredibly painful stick to avoid) the cups had to be placed a long, long second to league priorities. Next season should we go up, we could well have two cup runs alongside a relegation battle, much like we did last season.

[The Boleyn Hound]

QUOTE="Kentish Hammer"Whoever it was in row 21 that kept dropping their guts, you are a c***. I had the hangover from hell and your bowels really did not help my situation. QUOTE

I think they moved to row 26 in the 2nd half

Apologies

Still think of my mates, at least you didn't have to share a room with me all weekend

[The Collector]

Was Green dropped because BFS wanted to rotate the squad or because his new employers don't want him cup tied?

[Doc H Ball]

I would say unquestionably there's a good chance we won't win a cup in many of our lifetimes. There's only three we could realistically win if you include the Europa League. The FA Cup is invariably won by a top 4 side and the League Cup tends to be won by Top 4 reserve sides unless there's a shock. The Europa League of course is probably the hardest of the lot to win given we barely qualify for it and practically never progress very far.

That doesn't mean in 9 out of 10 seasons we won't give it our best shot in the cups. It's just that this season, with 46 league games already, and a juicy carrot to go for (and an incredibly painful stick to avoid) the cups had to be placed a long, long second to league priorities. Next season should we go up, we could well have two cup runs alongside a relegation battle, much like we did last season.

We were the width of a post away from winning it a few years ago.

What was the point in me and 3,000 or so others bothering to go then? Next season they can stick it.

I think it's a ****ing disgrace personally. Resting players for 14 days to prepare for Pompey means forfeiting the FA Cup?