West Ham Utd 2 Aston Villa 1 (04/11/09)

[Philosophical Dan]

Yep all of it! Shame you believe that a person is defined by their comments on an internet forum

I can confirm, I am every bit as much of an unpopular, smug prick in real life as I am on this forum.

[Lennie Hammer]

Don't really want to get involved in this (but can't help myself really), but I just want to say that Young struggles with consistency with his crossing. One good cross, 5 bad ones. It may have been a shot, but I don't think he's good enough and nor do I think it was one.

The main reason being was the amount of whip on the ball; being that I can't imagine Young sent the ball that far outside of the post, expecting it to turn back-in, as much as it did, in the very last few yards in the air. I've seen it done before and generally it's claimed a wonder goal by the player and most people just say, "righto mate?!?!". Didn't Gerrard score a similar goal recently, and no-one believed he meant it?

Fair play if he did, but not for me.

[Rocket]

Behrami wasnt at his best, he gave the ball away a lot, especially first half. Kept falling over too. In fact they all kept falling over. Wrong boots?

There were a few players falling over against Arsenal as well. Something we should maybe look at. There must be a way of drying the pitch?

[Georgee Paris]

Perhaps we should get giant towels on rollers and dry the glades of grass and then make sure all our players wear dunlop green stripe and then hope that no one needs to stop in a hurry or they will end up in orbit or worse digging up a trench each time they change direction, not enough green stains in football these days. down with the watering of the pitch, bring back metal studs and skids on tarmac.

[bristolhammerfc]

My opinion of last nights game:

Green, grew in confidence was back to his best last night. No chance for the goal 9

Illunga, injured early on so no real impact 6

Upson, again seemed to be back to his best, I wonder if Tomkins isn't the problem 8

Da Costa, adapting to the premiership, unlucky to concede the penalty 7

Faubert, I struggle to understand his selection, caught out many times 6

Behrami, probably his worst game for us, lost possesion too many times 6

Noble, hooray finally played like he wanted to keep his place 7

Parker immense, broke up play, great tackle back in the first half, top player on the night 9

Collison, starts well, tails off then dies 7

Cole, same old until the injury a big miss for us 6

Franco, played well struggled to keep up later on, nice birthday present for him. 7

Spector, did Ok but doesn't look like a top flight player 7

Hines, just edged by Parker for MOM, pacey and enthusiastic 8


Zola, I worried about the team at kick off, still don't think he knows his best team, substitutions were forced on him, and still felt he didn't show anything new. 7


Overall a good win that could have gone the other way. Some bizzare refereeing, and forced substitutions helped us out, and still felt we lacked ideas and fitness as a team. Great to get three points though and imortant for confidence 7

[Georgee Paris]

I presumed Faubert played as he had the pace to deal with Abonglahor.

[cockney hammer]

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[Dyl]

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awesome

[prophet:marginal]

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Such a well taken goal.

[RichieRiv]

I quite like the irony of the handball chant, especially when it goes on and on (as per the Spurs last season). Garth Crooks seemed to like it, he was having a good chuckle.

[smuts]

Makes you wonder how we managed to reach 19th before - still 4-4-2 with energy in midfield and pace upfront seems to cure our ills quite regularly...

Funny how easy it seems to be for the midfield to knock an half decent pass when there's two up front, and one of them runs like a whippet

Amazing what happens when you play two strikers within about 20 yards of each other.

I liked the way Hines get going from side to side, they just couldn't pick him up.

[Gazzaloz]

Someone behind me in the BMU spent the entire game berating Behrami in the mistaken belief he was Kovac because of his ultra blond barnet.

[davids cross]

Amazing what happens when you play two strikers within about 20 yards of each other.

I add another thought into that..............possibly, just possibly, Coles exertions up on his own for so long this season actually contributed to the almost inevitable break down from injury last night. Of course it can't be proved and players can pull hammies at any time but........maybe it all caught up with him, another reason to have a strike partner.

[simian major]

Anyone found a torrent of the match or extended highlights?

[saludo de carlitos]

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Seriously good video, but why would someone be videoing it and not watching the game?.

[ponder]

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Heinze?

[kthammer]

quote]

Such a well taken goal.[/quote]

Exactly -the more I see of it the more impressed I am by his quicksilver feet - I still can't work out how he manages to work it from one foot to the other and get in a shot in one move. He is a natural, intuitive goalscorer a la Greaves, Owen, Muller etc He has pace, improvises, control and a shot - I am not picking on Freddie Sears but the contrast is clear between a one dimensional and a multi-dimensional striker.

[hammer1975]

obviously delighted with the result and hopefully confidence will grow from there but whilst it was a definite improvement on earlier in the season I don't think we're out of the woods yet.....about time we had some luck against everton methinks...

positives
hines 'turn and run at goal' direct approach is the most refreshing approach I've seen in a west ham shirt for a while
da costa looked steady
specs looked better at left back thanright back!
collison (despite tiring) was all over the place wanting the ball
noble actually tried shooting/passing the ball forward a bit
parker and green were immense
franco's movement brings something to the team we haven't seen since we sold bellamy IMO

negatives
midfield still sits too deep and runs out of ideas in the final third despite dominating possession second half
zola brings on jiminez in 89th minute - what's that about? many on this forum were shouting for jiminez or diamanti after about 60 minutes - if it had remained 1-1 I think many would have been talking missed opportunity
behrami didn't have one of his best games and looked short of fitness so hope he's ok for Sunday
cole and ilunga injuries obviously
faubert

[lopsidedbunny]

Why was there no Match of the Day last night? I thought the BBC had right to show highlights but it was only shown Sky... Anytime soon the be shown on the BBC?

[Essex Hammer 1992]

Still have a habit of scoring late goals though! :raver:

Monday Tuesday Habib Beye!
Wednesday Thursday Habib Beye!