The Geeks' fine form continued with a 4-1 win over their Ipswich Town counterparts today. Boss Vinnie White reports from darkest Suffolk.....
IFA League Result:Ipswich (Punch Drunk) iFC 1 – 4 West Ham iFC
Many thanks to Shaun, Martin and all the lads at Ipswich for hosting West Ham on this great spring morning.
West Ham went into the game having not had a fixture for a month due to weather and cancellations. With a smallish travelling squad to choose from, West Ham lined up like this:
Garrard
White, Stafford, Tanner, Dunn
Coates, Gray, Crane, North K
Batterbee, Heywood R
Subs:
Soave
Wells
Heywood J
Ipswich started very brightly and had the best of most of the play. Attacking down the flanks with pace, West Ham were struggling to cope in the first 15 minutes or so and were very reliant on some last minute defending and wasteful finishing from the Ipswich forwards.
Indeed, it was not until around 25 minutes in that West Ham mustered any sort of forward momentum. Our defence and midfield were not working well together and the Ipswich guys were playing well, meaning we had some extremely uncomfortable moments.
Despite this, and somewhat against the run of play, West Ham took the lead on the half hour when some good work from the forwards lead to skipper Luke Gray being fed the ball on the edge of the box to smash home on the half volley.
1-0 West Ham. (Luke Gray)
The goal seemed to galvanise West Ham and from that moment on, everything tightened up and our all round play improved greatly. We should have doubled our lead shortly after when Richie Heywood was sent through by Batters and despite a powerful shot from Richie, the keeper made a good save. This was one of many the Town keeper made this afternoon.
West Ham continued to pressure and were rewarded with a somewhat dubious penalty on the stroke of half time when Batters was brought down in the area. Batters isn’t one to dive, but equally, I thing the pen was very soft. It was one of those that could have gone either way. Nevertheless, Ritchie Heywood stepped up confidently and passed the ball home into the bottom right corner.
2-0 West Ham. (Richie Heywood)
The half time whistle blew almost immediately and West Ham went in 2 up, despite not really being in the game for most of the half.
Changes were made at half time to counter act the dangerous Ipswich wingers with White and Coates swapping sides to the left where Ipswich were getting a lot of success, and Colin Wells replacing James Dunn and filling in at right back. Richie Heywood was replaced by Jim Soave and John Heywood replaced Graeme Stafford in the middle of defence.
Garrard
Wells, Heywood J, Tanner, White
North K, Gray, Crane, Coates
Batterbee, Soave
The changes worked and Ipswich were never really in the game after that. West Ham assumed control and started playing the football that has seen us have our best season ever. One touch passing, good movement and intelligent play made all the difference, as well as Ipswich making their own changes that seemed to weaken them as an attacking force.
On the 75 minute mark, West Ham got their third of the afternoon through a delightful chip from Batters from just inside the left hand side of the box. The keeper was beaten from the second it left the big mans foot. A real contender for individual goal of the season!
3-0 West Ham (Ian Batterbee)
The game was well and truly won now and West Ham took the opportunity to make a couple more changes with Dunn replacing White at Left Back and Richie Heywood coming back on for Kev North to play from the left. Shortly after Graeme Stafford replaced Stu Crane in the middle to ensure all that travelled got a decent amount of football.
Almost immediately, the forth came when some great link up play saw Batters release John Coates into the box to finish well into the bottom left corner.
4-0 West Ham (John Coates)
With around 5 minutes to go and the game won, West Ham took their foot off the gas and allowed Ipswich to score a consolation. It was the least they deserved for giving us a good game and a real scare in the first half.
4-1 West Ham
The final whistle went and West Ham celebrated their 13th win of the season.
Special mention must go to Luke Gray who leaves us now for a year or so of living in Canada. Luke will be a real miss and impossible to replace. Not only is he a great player, but he has been a good captain for us, a frequent goal scorer and a top bloke. We all wish you luck Luke and hope to see you when you come back.
Tonight, we celebrate in Bas Vegas. Ritchie Heywood had better watch his back.
Manager's MOTM: Ian Batterbee.
Doesn’t run, can’t tackle, never tracks back, has the biggest mouth in iFA football and always moans. Fortunately, he also creates and scores goals for us and has one of those fabled football brains which means his physical limitations are more than made up for with his ability.
The fat sod.
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