Latest News

Any pre-season hope and optimism was washed away in the space of just 90 minutes as West Ham fell to a demoralising, opening day defeat at home to Newcastle at the London Olympic Stadium.

Two second half goals were enough to condemn David Moyes' men to a hugely disappointing defeat against a Newcastle side that, unlike West Ham's, had been strengthened in recent weeks by a series of arrivals.




And for David Moyes' side it was a case of the same old problems resurfacing as new signings Callum Wilson and Jeff Hendrick struck for the visitors to send the Hammers spiralling to defeat in Stratford.

In what had been an evenly-matched opening half the Hammers went closest to breaking the deadlock when both Angelo Ogbonna (header) and Pablo Fornals (shot from eight yards) struck the woodwork with Newcastle 'keeper Darlow beaten on both occasions.

However those narrow misses were to come back to haunt West Ham in a second half in whcih the spirit and enthusiasm ahown ahead of the break all but disappeared.

Wilson, the scourge of West Ham for so long when wearing a Bournemouth shirt struck 11 minutes after the restart when converting a low cross from the right that took a deflection from Pablo Fornals. Ogbonna was beaten to the ball at the near post from where it was flicked on for Wilson to nod home, with Issa Diop a passenger having lost his marker.




And the visitors wrapped up all three points three minutes from the end of full time when fellow recent arrival Hendrick hit an unstoppable effort from the edge of the penalty box as Aaron Cresswell stood motionless, allowing the Newcastle man time to compose his shot.

Speaking after the game, David Moyes rejected suggestions that the defeat wasn't the result of the club failing to secure any new signings in the transfer window thus far.

"I think you are always trying to improve the squad but that wasn’t the reason we lost tonight," he said. "We have to analyse that.

"We had a good pre-season, we were feeling good after finishing the season well so we were disappointed with tonight. We need to get better with the players we have and they can be better, undoubtedly."





West Ham Utd: Fabianski, Fredericks, Diop, Ogbonna, Cresswell, Rice, Soucek, Bowen (Felipe Anderson 89), Noble (Yarmolenko 67), Fornals (Haller 67), Antonio

Subs not used: Randolph, Johnson, Balbuena, Lanzini.

Booked: Fredericks, Yarmolenko.

Newcastle Utd: Darlow, Manquillo, Lascelles, Fernandez, Lewis, Hendrick, Shelvey, Hayden, Saint-Maximin (Joelinton 75), Carroll (S.Longstaff 88), Wilson (Almiron 85)
Subs: Gillespie, Krafth, Ritchie, Fraser.

Goals: Wilson (56), Hendrick (87).

Booked: Hayden, Manquillo.

Referee: Stuart Attwell.




* Something to say about this story? Please visit the KUMB Forum to leave a comment.