Under The Hammers

This Week in Hammer’s History

A thrilling drawn London derby and League Cup incident in the week 12 – 18 December in Hammer’s History.

This Week Hammers History It was sad to read yesterday of the death of Peter Brabrook who featured as a flying winger for the Hammers between October 1962 and January 1968. Peter made 215 appearances for West Ham scoring 43 times and was part of the victorious 1964 FA Cup winning side.

On 17 December 1966 Brabrook was in the West Ham side that visited Stamford Bridge to play his old team, Chelsea in a First Division fixture. The Hammers made an uncharacteristic strong start to the game and were 2-0 to the good after 30 minutes with Brabrook himself scoring the first and Martin Peters the second. Tommy Baldwin pulled one back for Chelsea just before the break prompting a change in the direction of the match and ten minutes into the second half the hosts were leading 3-2 (Tony Hately, Charlie Cooke). Undeterred, West Ham regrouped to score 3 goals in an 8 minute spell (John Sissons (2) and a Johnny Byrne penalty) and with 10 minutes to go continued to hold a 5-3 advantage. Bobby Tambling then scored from the penalty spot and then completed the scoring in the dying minutes with one that came off his shin to make the final score 5-5. These goals elevated Tambling to Chelsea’s all-time record goal-scorer; a position that he held until overtaken in by Lampard Junior in 2013.

Standen, Bovington, Charles J (Burnett), Peters, Brown, Moore, Brabrook, Boyce, Byrne, Hurst, Sissons

On the 15 December 1971 it was the second leg of the Football League Cup semi-final against Stoke City. Confidence was high with West Ham having won the first leg in the previous week by 2 goals to 1. This was a full-bloodied affair under the Upton Park floodlights but with Stoke the better side on the night it remained goalless until the 73^rd minute when a mix-up in the West Ham defence between Tommy Taylor and John McDowell allowed John Ritchie to convert a hopeful cross. No away goals rule in this competition at the time and the game went into 30 minutes of extra time. With the clock slowly ticking away Harry Redknapp was put through on goal only to be hauled down by a flying Gordon Bank’s rugby tackle. Not considered a sending off offence at the time it was then Banks against Geoff Hurst for the resulting penalty. Hurst had scored from the spot in the first leg and had a tremendous penalty record and so most in the 38,000 crowd considered it a formality and were already making plans for their trip back to Wembley. Hurst adopted his usual pile-driver approach to penalty kicks but somehow Banks managed to deflect the thundering shot over the bar. There was just enough time to take the resulting corner before the final whistle signaled that a replay was going to be required.

Ferguson, McDowell, Lampard, Bonds, Taylor, Moore, Redknapp, Best, Hurst, Brooking, Robson

More League Cup action (then known as the Worthington Cup) exactly 28 years later with a 5^th round home tie against Aston Villa. Ian Taylor put Villa ahead in the first half only for Lampard Junior to steer home a pass from Paolo Di Canio for a second half equaliser. Dion Dublin appeared to win the game for the visitors with an added time volley but there was still time for Paul Kitson to win a penalty which then Di Canio then converted. Extra time was goalless and so the game went to penalties which ended in West Ham’s favour when Gareth Southgate missed his sudden death kick. Of course the game is best remembered for the Mannygate affair where West Ham fielded an ineligible player when Emmanuel Omoyinmi came on as an extra time substitute for Paulo Wanchope. Omoyinmi had previously played both legs in an earlier round of the competition while on loan at Gillingham and was thus ineligible. The match against Villa was replayed which the Hammers eventually lost 1-3.

Hislop, R Ferdinand, Margas, Lomas, Ruddock, Cole (Kitson), Sinclair, Wanchope (Omoyinmi), Di Canio, Lampard, Keller

Notable Birthdays

12 December     Nobby Solano                    42
15 December     Aaron Cresswell 27
16 December     Reece Oxford                    18
17 December     Andre Ayew                       27
17 December     John Bond                           d. 2012
17 December     Joe Kirkup                           77

5 Observations from West Ham @ Liverpool

Happy with the point but are West Ham in good shape for the winnable games?

The Fixture List of Death

The point at Anfield was an unexpected, welcome and hard earned one that brought with it some relief. If the match commentator was correct West Ham are one of only two teams to avoid defeat at Liverpool so far this season. The run of games of death is now behind us and a two point return is maybe more than many expected; but for the last few minutes at White Hart Lane it could have been even healthier. With the exception of last weekend’s rout by Arsenal the performances against Tottenham, Manchester United and Liverpool have been generally acceptable and, in many ways, were similar (but with less successful outcomes) to games against the ‘top’ sides last year. At Anfield the team worked hard, provided some degree of collective organisation, and were able to frustrate Liverpool and limit the number of clear cut goal-scoring opportunities. The Achilles heel last term, however, was not winning the ‘winnable’ games and so the next three matches are going to be a serious test of that characteristic and will go a very long way in defining the remainder of the season.

Fitness, Passing and Movement

Although very happy with the point there are some common basic shortcomings with our play and it was highlighted in the differences between the two teams yesterday. A number of our players do not look to be at acceptable fitness levels and some visually look to be carrying too much weight (notably Ayew and Payet). Liverpool played most of the game on their toes, were constantly on the move and there were always several passing options available to the man on the ball. Passing was quick and slick and it was fortunate for West Ham that, on the day, the leagues freest scoring side lacked a cutting edge in front of goal. In contrast we are routinely flat footed with players waiting for the ball to arrive before deciding the next move; there are often few passing options available through lack of movement which, in my view, is more of an issue for conceding possession than poor pass execution itself. Exceptions yesterday (and for the majority of the season) were Obiang, Reid and Antonio who all had excellent games.

Changing Formations

Once again West Ham have been front runners in the injury table at The Physio Room. Whether this is simply bad luck or a consequence of deeper seated problems is a mystery. The situation is not helped by a lopsided squad which resulted in a recall for Havard Nordtveit to defensive duties on Sunday. I was surprised that he was at right back as, when I saw the team sheet, I expected he was going to be part of the dreaded back three formation that does not suit our players and leaves us wide open down the flanks. The other surprise was that Antonio was the main striker but once he had demonstrated that he is one player who knows where the goal is he was quickly switched around; first to right wing back (when Carroll replaced Ayew and Nordtveit did become one of three centre backs) and then subsequently to a more advanced right midfield position (when Fernandes replaced Lanzini). Possibly Slaven Bilic has a yearning for a retro 1970’s totaalvoetbal style of play but it just seems to confuse the hell out of our tactically limited players.

Dead Wood United

Over the years the West Ham squad has been littered with its fair share of dead wood. With the departure of Fat Sam much of what was left over from the sojourn in the Championship was steadily cleared away leaving ample room to assemble a new pile. Fortunately we have only borrowed some of this excess baggage and hopefully they will be on their way back to their parent clubs straight after the Xmas party. Unfortunately the club are stuck paying the wages of Havard Nordtveit and Sofiane Feghouli for the time being though. Feghouli was nowhere near the squad this week but Nordtveit made his 7^th Premier League appearance. Accepting that he has been played in a few different positions it is still difficult to put your finger on exactly what his qualities are that allowed him to establish a career in the Bundesliga and at international level. He may not be a right back but you would think he’d understand what one is supposed to do. Is it naive to assume that he would have prepared for it most of the week; but that didn’t stop his going walkabout and he fully deserved his rollicking by Reid? Another player I have become disillusioned with is Angelo Ogbonna. A steady defender at times but tends to switch off too often and appears to shirk the most basic defensive responsibilities. Once again slack play by Ogbonna was the precursor to the first Liverpool goal which could so easily have scuppered the whole game plan. It make me nostalgic for the Reid – Tomkins partnership.

Where Have All The Young-stars Gone?

In the build up to the game I read some interesting comments by Jurgen Klopp to the effect that he prefers to keep promising young players at the club rather than sending them out on loan. This enables them to train with the first team squad and assimilate better into the team’s style of play. West Ham have half a dozen or so youngsters out on loan, the majority of whom rarely get game time. The exception is Reece Burke who, injuries apart, has been a regular starter at both centre back and emergency full-back at struggling Wigan. Given our own travails at right back why is he not back with the squad and plugging that gap. Come to that, although he is injured now, why have we not seen anything of Reece Oxford this season despite the defensive frailties experienced? It was good to see a few youngsters on the bench at Anfield but I am concerned about how reluctant Bilic has become to blood youngsters. The Academy of Football is currently far behind the likes of Liverpool, Southampton and Tottenham in giving young talent an opportunity.

Liverpool 2 v 2 West Ham – Blowing my own trumpet!

Taking the positives from a hard earned point against Liverpool at Anfield.

Embed from Getty Images

Sometimes in life you have to blow your own trumpet. Well I haven’t actually got a trumpet but you know what I mean. Since the beginning of this season Geoff and I have been writing this weblog and haven’t pulled any punches when writing about our beloved West Ham. But despite our less than convincing start to the season, I have remained optimistic throughout and my optimism was fully justified after our draw at Anfield.

Anybody who has followed our blog will know that there are certain features that are constant. Firstly, we are involved in a prediction competition with Lawro. Secondly, I write a betting column each week. And thirdly, we write a preview of each game that West Ham play.

First things first. If you have read our prediction competition involving Lawro you will know that I am comfortably ahead in our forecasts for the season to date. This, despite the fact that Lawro is actually paid by the BBC to predict the Premier league results each week, probably because they believe he is a so-called expert. If you have followed his predictions you will know that sometimes he has been beaten by celebrities, some of whom confess they know little about the game. Amongst my predictions this week you will also note that I forecast a 2-2 draw at Anfield.

If you follow my betting column you will know that, after this week, I am comfortably in profit for the season to date, even despite some outrageous fun bets. If it hadn’t been for the last two minutes against Tottenham, which I didn’t foresee, then our season profit would have been huge. Nevertheless I was consistent, and believed that we would get at least a draw from our game at Anfield, and a 2-2 scoreline was a good result for the column.

Finally, if you read my preview for this week’s game you will note that I made comments like “What is there to worry about? We faced Liverpool four times last season. We won both league games, drew 0-0 there in the fourth round of the FA Cup, and beat them after extra time in the replay at Upton Park. That is 390 minutes of football, plus injury time, and we scored seven goals to their one. And we finished above them in the league. So why do the bookies make them 3/10 favourites, and offer odds of 9/1 on us winning the game?” I finished by saying “I’ll put my optimistic hat on and say we’ll get a 2-2 draw on Sunday.”

Now forecasting the results of football matches is a bit of a minefield. It’s even harder to predict what West Ham are going to do. You win some and you lose some. Sometimes you win, hence the reason for blowing my own trumpet after this game.

As far as the game goes, then I was extremely disappointed that we conceded a goal in the first five minutes once again. Anybody who read my book, Goodbye Upton Park, Hello Stratford, which is available in paperback or Kindle on Amazon, will note that constantly throughout that last famous season at Upton Park, I wrote about our inability to start a game, or indeed to start a second half of a game, on the front foot. And so it proved again, when we even exceeded our first half lapse at the beginning of the second half, by conceding a goal in just two minutes.

Randolph’s lapse was unfortunate and led to calls on social media for Adrian to return to our goal. It is not a belief I share, and I was pleased he had the opportunity for some redemption with a world class save to deny Henderson later in the game.

I note that I also wrote in the preview of this game that “Bournemouth showed us last Sunday that the Liverpool defence can be got at, and their keeper looked very vulnerable.” Payet once again showed his class by scoring from yet another free kick, although I reckon the Liverpool keeper would have been disappointed that his right arm wasn’t stronger, as he should perhaps have kept it out. And Antonio took his goal well, pouncing on a Liverpool defensive lapse, and just for once scoring with his feet and not his head. I liked his post-match interview where he jokingly said that he considered getting down to nod the ball into the goal.

I also noted that the statisticians came up with a new one that I hadn’t seen before “touches in the opposition penalty area”. It showed that Liverpool won this contest 53-5. But whilst it may be an interesting feature for some, the game proved that it really is a meaningless statistic unless you turn those touches into goals.

I’m sure that Mr. Nordveidt, like Messrs. Zaza and Tore amongst others, must have shown some footballing qualities that made us want to buy them in the first place, but to date I haven’t yet seen what they are. I reckon that, despite Mr. Bilic’s admirable qualities as a football manager, which undoubtedly far exceed my own judgement of footballers, I have a better idea as to what makes a decent right back. He persisted with Antonio in this position for far longer than I believe he should have, and his selection of Nordveidt in the full back role leaves me totally bewildered. His positioning is so far out, and Liverpool spotted this in their pre-match planning. It was no surprise to me that their two goals came from attacks down their left flank.

It was good to hear the West Ham away support throughout the game, and in particular their support for the manager, when he has come under so much pressure. Despite his inability to know a right back when he sees one, I hope that he continues to get the support to get us out of the trouble that we are undoubtedly still in. We have just pulled out of the bottom three, and I hope that it is the last time I see a league table this season where we are in it.

When all is considered it was a point well earned, and the players showed a lot of spirit to earn the draw. Let us hope that we now build on that in the relative easier (on paper) four games to come. I’ll keep my optimistic hat on and hope that I get more opportunities to blow my own trumpet in the weeks to come!

I Wouldn’t Bet On It 20

The odds of being struck by lightning twice in your lifetime are 1 in 9 million. It’s still worth a try…….

Fancy A Bet Last week we lost six points in the forlorn hope that we would get at least a draw against Arsenal. We now have 95 points. Despite Liverpool’s second half capitulation at Bournemouth last Sunday, they are still massively odds-on to beat an out of form, and lacking in confidence West Ham team. But then again, they were big odds-on favourites to beat us when we went to Anfield at the end of August 2015.

You will recall what happened then. In the two previous weeks we had lost at home to Leicester and Bournemouth, and prior to the game we hadn’t won at Anfield since September 1963. Gerry and the Pacemakers hadn’t even released You’ll Never Walk Alone when we won that 1963 game 2-1.

But last season, against the odds, we won 3-0 there, and then we beat them 2-0 at Upton Park in the first game of 2016. If I recall correctly they were the only team that we took six points off. We also knocked them out of the FA Cup after a replay. So you would think that we wouldn’t be such enormous underdogs in this Sunday’s game. But of course, anyone who has seen us this season will know why.

However, in a continuation of previous week’s optimism, my main bet this week will be to stake 10 points on West Ham to win or draw the game @5/2 (35). Then a small outlay on the following fun bets:

1 point on West Ham to repeat last season’s 3-0 win @250-1 (251)
1 point on a 2-2 draw @16/1 (17)
1 point on a West Ham win with Lanzini to score anytime @30/1 (31)
1 point on a West Ham win with Obiang to score anytime @90/1 (91)
1 point on West Ham to win the game @9/1 (10)

Our balance is now down to 80 points following this 15 point outlay.

If we win or draw the game we are in profit. In the extremely unlikely event of us winning the game 3-0, including goals from both Lanzini and Obiang, then our return would be 418 points!

What are the chances?

Matchday: Hammers @ Anfield

Try as I might I can only see an oncoming train wreck emerging from the Anfield tunnel.

Liverpool West Ham I am of the firm opinion that if Slaven Bilic cannot secure at least 8 points from the next 5 games he should start to pack his bags since sticking with him would represent a massive gamble. After yesterday’s results West Ham have slipped back into the bottom 3 and a heavy defeat today could see the situation deteriorate further. Of the next 5 games today’s fixture is undoubtedly the toughest on paper with a point likely to be the optimistic target. Unfortunately Liverpool’s weakness at the defensive end of the pitch is not something we are equipped to exploit with the firepower available. Are we able to score as many as we concede as I see little prospect of keeping a clean sheet today.

“I feel the support and have said that so many times and I felt that support in our conversation this week. I believe in myself and my staff and look at what we achieved last year and I believe there is time to turn it around.”

– Slaven Bilic

It is standard practice for many West Ham fans to despise anything Scouse related and certainly the media love-in with Liverpool, despite their having won the last of their league titles some 26 seasons ago, can be immensely irritating. However, I do believe that Jurgen Klopp, for all his idiosyncrasies, has done an impressive job since arriving at Anfield in October last year. He looks to be on the way to the holy grail of football management of getting a team to perform in a manner that is greater than the sum of its parts. His side is a team largely devoid of individual stars that plays to a well-defined system that is both effective and allows them to compensate for absent players much easier. It is an interesting contrast to our own disjointed and disorganised efforts so far this season.

Head to Head

West Ham’s abysmal record at Anfield is there for all to see. Last season’s first win in 50 odd years brought the total of away victories to an unimpressive 3 in a series where we have only scored 36 goals in 60 matches. In a historic sense we will over achieve if we manage to score today.

	P	W	D	L	F	A	Sequence
Home	60	22	17	21	83	83	WWWLLW
Away	60	3	19	38	36	113	DWLLDL
	120	25	36	59	119	196

Team News

It appears that both Antonio and Cresswell have recovered from the injuries incurred in the EFL Cup game at Old Trafford and are available to start. As far as I know Kouyate remains injured and Collins is also out. I am hoping this means an enforced change to the 3 at the back experiment. It must be a toss-up who plays in goal (Adrian or Randolph) and who will be the main striker (Carroll or Fletcher). There must be a tendency to take a risk averse, danger limitation approach (at least as far as player fitness is concerned) to this match with home games coming up against Burnley and Hull in the next week. It will be nice if the players have re-discovered that intensity that they lost in training and can at least put in a shift this week.

“If there’s any reaction from the team, I don’t know, maybe we will be angry against West Ham.”

– Jurgen Klopp

My anticipated line-up for a side that will be primarily concerned with protecting the point is:

Randolph
Arbeloa Reid Ogbonna Cresswell
Noble Obiang
Antonio Lanzini Payet
Carroll

Liverpool are without Coutinho and Sturridge but unfortunately Mane is fit enough to return to the side that will be smarting from defeat at Bournemouth last week. If I felt optimistic I might think that throwing away a two goal lead last week could have dented their confidence but the greater likelihood is that they will be raring to put it all behind them.

Man in The Middle

It is self-important celebrity referee Mark Clattenburg of County Durham in the middle today. Clattenburg’s only West Ham fixture so far this season was the away defeat at West Bromwich. He has taken charge of 15 games in all competitions this season totaling 59 Yellow and 2 Red cards.

Liverpool Preview

Has the Anfield hoodoo ended or will normal service be resumed this Sunday?

Embed from Getty Images

What is there to worry about? We faced Liverpool four times last season. We won both league games, drew 0-0 there in the fourth round of the FA Cup, and beat them after extra time in the replay at Upton Park. That is 390 minutes of football, plus injury time, and we scored seven goals to their one. And we finished above them in the league. So why do the bookies make them 3/10 favourites, and offer odds of 9/1 on us winning the game? Are they a better team than they were when we last met? Probably, yes. Have our performances this season declined compared to last? Definitely, yes.

The first win in August 2015 was the one that took everyone by surprise. Although we had already beaten Arsenal at the Emirates on the opening day of the season, we lost the next two games at home to Leicester and Bournemouth. Nobody thought we had any realistic chance of victory at Anfield, where we hadn’t won since 1963. But an early goal from Lanzini was followed by a Mark Noble strike on the half hour, and then Sakho wrapped up a comprehensive 3-0 victory in injury time. By the time we met them on 2 January, our impressive season was well underway. We had only lost twice since our early season win at Anfield, and sat in seventh place. Goals from Antonio and Carroll secured a 2-0 win and the double over them. At the end of January we met them in the fourth round of the FA Cup, and a goalless draw at Anfield was followed by a 2-1 victory in the replay with goals from Antonio, and a 121st minute header from Ogbonna.

But this season it has all gone wrong, and we go into this game already embroiled in a relegation dogfight. Nobody realistically expects us to get anything this time, possibly giving us even less chance than last season’s surprise. But Bournemouth showed us last Sunday that the Liverpool defence can be got at, and their keeper looked very vulnerable. I wonder if our training has been more intense following the revelation after the Arsenal game that it hasn’t been what it should have? I read that Bilic has taken specific hands-on coaching of our defence, and not before time. I also read that Dicks has not been involved in coaching the defence, and that the offer from Rio Ferdinand to get involved has been declined. We’ll see on Sunday if there has been any improvement.

I also read rumours that Reece Burke is being recalled from his loan to add to our defensive squad, in particular the problematic right back position, and I welcome that if it is true. Every time he has played at either centre back or right back he has looked a good prospect to me, and definitely a player we should be looking to include. Also, Sam Byram is nearing a return, and hopefully our other injured players will be back soon. And I’d also like to see Reece Oxford given a runout. I’m sure he will turn out to be some player, but we’ll never know if he doesn’t get a chance. Perhaps they are waiting for him to sign a new contract.

Of course, the defence has not been our only problem, and we need to create opportunities and score more goals, by increasing the tempo of our attacking play. I hope that they have worked on this at Rush Green too. Naturally the media has been full of our woes, and rumours abound as to who we are looking to bring into the club in the January transfer window. The latest ones are Defoe, who would be superb alongside an in-form and injury-free Carroll, but would not be popular with some sections of our fans, who are unable to forgive him for the past. He was a young guy who made a mistake, but it was a long time ago. I’ve also read about the interest in Fellaini and I just hope that that this one is way off the mark. Of course you can find links on the internet to hundreds of players that we are supposedly interested in signing. Fortunately, most of them are just rumours with no foundation whatsoever.

Once again, with no real reason to do so, I’ll put my optimistic hat on and say we’ll get a 2-2 draw on Sunday. What are the chances?

The Lawro Challenge – Week 15

We continue to give Lawro a run for his money in the Prediction Stakes.

Lawro Crystal Ball During the US Election the majority of the press were firmly rooting for and forecasting a runaway Hilary Clinton victory. When the results finally revealed a Trump victory the same media had to report on them and they did so through gritted teeth while pointing an accusing finger at anyone they could instead of accepting that they got it wrong.

I fee much the same as the onus falls to me to provide an update on the status of the Lawro Challenge. Here then is this weeks official release and below that this week’s predictions. The run of bad luck and freak results cannot continue and I can only see a steady closing of the gap.

Fourteen rounds of games in the Premier League have now been completed. That means we have now predicted the results of 140 matches. In Week 14, Rich scored 12 points, Geoff 4 points, and Lawro 11 points. In this challenge we award one point for a correct result, and a further two points (making three in total) if the score prediction is spot on.


	Rich	Geoff	Lawro
Total after 13 weeks	110	73	99
Score in week 14	12	4	11
Total after 14 weeks	122	77	110

Predictions – Week 15
	Rich	Geoff	Lawro
SATURDAY
Watford v Everton	1-1	2-1	0-2
Arsenal v Stoke	2-0	3-0	2-0
Burnley v Bournemouth	1-1	1-2	2-0
Hull v Palace	1-1	0-0	0-2
Swansea v Sunderland	2-1	0-1	1-1
Leicester v Man City	1-2	1-3	2-1
SUNDAY
Chelsea v WBA	3-1	3-0	2-0
Man Utd v Tottenham	1-1	0-1	1-1
Southampton v Middlesbrough	2-1	1-1	1-1
Liverpool v West Ham	2-2	3-1	2-0

Stadium tales & things I’ve heard in the crowd and on the way to games lately

London Stadium

In my book, Goodbye Upton Park, Hello Stratford, I referred to a character who used to sit somewhere behind me in the Betway stand at Upton Park, who used to shout the words “back door, back door” continuously throughout the game, when our opponents were attacking our goal. If they had a corner, or a free kick, or indeed were attacking down either flank he would shout those words. It got a bit boring after a while and many of us were pleased when he no longer turned up for games. I’d like to think that someone showed him the back door!

Now there is a guy who sits somewhere behind me who I think of as Mr. Know-It-All. Throughout the game he passes comment the whole time with one or two expletives in every sentence. He really believes he is an expert on the game, and likes to tell everyone in earshot. Every player on the pitch, either our team or the opposition is referred to at the end of every single phrase he utters as a c***, or a f****** c***. Most of us are really cheesed off with him as he thinks he knows everything, but there is an old couple who seem to hang on his every word and seem to find him funny. During the Arsenal game he spent most of the time he was there berating Antonio. He didn’t actually know the difference between Fernandes who was playing and Antonio who was not. Fortunately he disappears to the bar about fifteen minutes before half time, and leaves a similar time before the end of each game. The grandfather who sits next to me with his six year old grandson has complained to stewards but they don’t seem to want to act. He really is a pain and keeps saying he is never coming again. But unfortunately he does.

Also near me is a chap who follows the team to every game, home and away, including abroad when we are in Europe. He gives a running commentary to his two sons, explaining the finer points of the game throughout. He actually is quite knowledgeable, but it gets a bit wearing.

A few rows in front of me there is a chap who is a dead ringer for the singer Will Young. He comes to the game with his wife, or girlfriend, or whatever she is, but doesn’t take any interest in the match whatsoever. They are too busy cosying up to each other and should really go somewhere else and get a room.

Fortunately, most of the people in my vicinity in the ground are a good bunch. But I guess you see all sorts in a crowd.

I’ve also heard some interesting things on the radio on the way to games. Phil Neville, who has obviously been watching a lot of tennis lately used the following words in a commentary: “he forced the City player into an unforced error.”

Chris Waddle referring to the game at the top of the table last weekend used the words “Manchester City could easily have been 3-1 up before Chelsea scored”.

And another radio pundit, referring to our own Simone Zaza, used the words “He’s still looking to find his feet”. Now I know the reason for his poor performances. Perhaps if he finds them he will be a better player.

Happy Birthday Geoff Hurst (75) and David Cross (66)

Many happy returns to two former West Ham goal scoring heroes.

Hurst & Cross

Geoff Hurst, 75 today, scored 249 goals in 502 appearances and was part of the victorious 1964 FA Cup and 1965 ECWC sides. He remains the only player to score a World Cup final hat-trick.

David Cross, 66 today, scored 97 goals in 2003 and was an important member of the 1980 FA Cup winning side.

Who is to blame for our poor start to the season?

Who is in the firing line as disappointed fans look for someone to blame for the current shortcomings.

Board, manager, players The move to a new stadium often results in some people being unhappy. Most clubs when they move take a little while to settle. It’s the same as moving house. It takes a while to get used to your new surroundings. A trawl through social media reveals how when results are going against us, or when we are not playing well (to put it mildly), then individuals want to blame someone, or a group of people, or an inanimate object as to the reason for it. Sometimes it’s the players, or the manager, or the board, or the stadium. Sometimes it is all of them added together.

I can understand the disenchantment with players, especially when sometimes they don’t appear to be giving their all. I can understand that the buck stops with the manager when he is responsible for picking the team, devising tactics etc. If he is unhappy with the effort being put in by players at training, then it is his responsibility to do something about it. When things are not going well then the board will inevitably come in for criticism from some fans too. Certainly the summer transfer dealings which resulted in some very average recruitment, the proposed payments to Tevez, and anticipation of a “marquee” signing, would have been better kept in-house rather than discussed with media outlets. But the vitriolic personal attacks by some on social media are totally unnecessary, although I guess are just a consequence of the computer age, and happen in other spheres of life, too.

The one that really gets me is the criticism of the stadium. It’s just a football pitch surrounded by stands. I understand all the talk about it not being a football stadium, further from the pitch etc., so how comes we turned in the performance we did against Chelsea in the League Cup? Did we play it somewhere else when I wasn’t looking? The atmosphere at that game was at least equal to anything ever produced at Upton Park. The decibel levels when Antonio nodded in the late winner against Bournemouth, or when Payet scored his wonder individual goal to equalise against Middlesbrough went off the scale. And if you study the statistics, Upton Park was rarely a “fortress”.

I’m not one of the new breed of plastic supporters that I see written about. I spent 58 years going to Upton Park. I loved it in the old days when we stood on the terraces and were close to the pitch. Yes, sometimes a crowd of 20,000 would generate a fantastic atmosphere, but only at times when we were lifted by the players on the pitch. When we weren’t playing well you could almost hear a pin drop at times. And with the redevelopment of Upton Park into an all-seater stadium following the Taylor report, we weren’t that close to the pitch either. I am more than happy with the new stadium, as are most of the people I’ve discussed it with who sit nearby. But everyone is entitled to their opinion, and I always respect other opinions.

But I personally don’t understand why fans keep going on about it. There is no going back I’m afraid. There is no point in posting pictures of the Boleyn Ground in various states of demolition. I’ve even read pleas to wealthy West Ham fans to come forward, and put together a new team, a bit like what has happened in Manchester, and even try to buy the Boleyn Ground from the developers and build a brand new purpose built football stadium there. Quite a project to undertake.

Perhaps the reason for our poor start is a mixture of players, injuries, the manager and coaching staff, the training facilities, the board, and the stadium. I believe that with a good run of results, much of the negativity will disappear. Everyone has to pull together to turn things around. But if we are still hovering around the relegation zone at the turn of the year, then I am afraid that the current discontent will continue. Let’s hope that everyone involved does their bit to ensure a big improvement in the remainder of the season.