If ever a football match deserved to be described as the archetypal game of two halves, West Ham’s extraordinary 3-3 draw at Cardiff on Wednesday night was surely it. Forty-five minutes of despair were followed by forty-five minutes which might, just might, prove to be the beginning of something rather more encouraging.
Scott Parker could hardly have experienced a more dramatic return to the club. Appointed only in the morning of the game, barely 24 hours after Nuno Espírito Santo’s departure, Parker watched his new team disappear down the tunnel at half-time three goals behind. Jack Moylan had completed a hat-trick inside 39 minutes and a sizeable travelling support had made its feelings painfully clear. For supporters who had watched home defeats against Southampton and West Brom bring an end to Nuno’s reign, it must have felt like more of the same. Indeed, angry travelling supporters were chanting that the players were “not fit to wear the shirt”. I’m not sure if that was intended to mean all of them or some in particular. At that stage you wondered what exactly Parker had let himself in for. But by the end of the game, you wondered whether we had witnessed the first small spark of a revival.
There was precious little in West Ham’s opening 45 minutes to suggest what was coming later. Moylan opened the scoring after 11 minutes, given the space to advance before producing an unstoppable 20-yard finish. Things unravelled spectacularly late in the half. Morato was caught on the wrong side, not for the first time, and conceded a penalty which Moylan converted in the 37th minute. Does Hermansen ever look like he is going to save a penalty? He always looks resigned to conceding a goal even before the kick is taken. Only two minutes later the Cardiff midfielder / striker completed his hat-trick with a header from Joel Bagan’s corner.
Parker had begun his new job at nine o’clock that morning and admitted afterwards that he had met the players for the first time then. He therefore had virtually no opportunity to influence the preparation. But at half-time he finally had their undivided attention. Apparently, according to Arne Engels, he was, not surprisingly, a very angry manager.
And suddenly everything changed. Perhaps we shouldn’t romanticise half-time team talks too much, because Parker himself stressed there were tactical instructions involved. He said West Ham needed to be more aggressive without the ball, become more front-footed and take greater risks, and he backed that with immediate action.
Joël Piroe, Mohamadou Kanté and Ezra Mayers were introduced at the interval, replacing the ineffectual Taty, clearly not match-fit Magassa, and never a left-back in a million years Morato, and the difference in attitude was immediately apparent. West Ham began playing with urgency. Cardiff, so comfortable before the break, were suddenly being pushed backwards.
There is, however, a delicious historical comparison here. In February 2011, Parker famously helped inspire a West Ham side trailing 3-0 at half-time at West Bromwich Albion to recover and draw 3-3. Nearly 16 years later, in his first match as West Ham’s head coach, he somehow found himself in almost exactly the same situation. You really couldn’t make it up as whatever Parker said at half-time it worked.
Jarrod Bowen created the opening for Divine Mukasa, who delicately lifted the ball over ex- West Ham keeper Nathan Trott in the 58th minute. Suddenly 3-0 became 3-1 and Cardiff had something to think about. Seven minutes later Arne Engels scored his first West Ham goal to make it 3-2, and they really had something to think about as West Ham turned up the pressure. Now there was only one team with the momentum. With eight minutes of normal time remaining, Maximilian Kilman completed an astonishing comeback. Three-nil down at half-time. Three-three with eight minutes remaining. By then, wonderfully, we were probably disappointed not to win it.
We shouldn’t get carried away. Parker will know better than anyone that a team with genuine promotion ambitions cannot keep giving opponents three-goal starts. There are still obvious defensive problems to address and the alarming passive nature of that opening period cannot simply be forgotten because of what followed. But football is about confidence as much as formations and tactics. A 3-3 draw after leading 3-0 feels like a defeat. A 3-3 draw after trailing 3-0 feels suspiciously like a victory.
West Ham finished Wednesday night eighth, occupying the final play-off position, so despite the recent turbulence the season remains very much alive. Only six points separate the top 10 clubs in what is a very competitive division. More importantly, Parker has already learned something about his squad and that is they haven’t given up. And they discovered something about him too. When things went horribly wrong, their new manager didn’t hide. He changed personnel, altered the approach and demanded greater aggression. It was quite an introduction. The substitutions were timely and appropriate, unlike those made by his predecessor. Personally I would have liked to see Austbo also introduced at half time to replace Solomon but that was another beneficial change that he made in the second half.
There isn’t much time for Parker to enjoy it. West Ham are back on the road on Saturday, travelling to Ewood Park to face Blackburn Rovers in a 3pm Championship kick-off. Blackburn provide a fascinating test because their home form deserves respect. West Ham, though, have reasons for travelling north with confidence of our own. Our away record has been one of the more encouraging aspects of the season, and the fighting spirit shown at Cardiff should send the players into the Blackburn match feeling very different from the way they entered the Cardiff dressing room at half-time. Incredibly we are still undefeated away from home this season despite two particularly woeful first half performances at Millwall and Cardiff.
There are dangers. Andri Gudjohnsen has been Blackburn’s principal goalscorer, and one of the leading goalscorers in the Championship, while Todd Cantwell is another player West Ham cannot afford to allow too much freedom. But this match is really about us. Parker has had virtually no time to coach this squad. His first match arrived on the same day he took the job. Now he has another game barely three days later. We therefore shouldn’t expect a tactical revolution overnight, but what we can expect is a reaction.
Parker talked upon his appointment about the need for consistency. That is surely the key word now. The spirit and aggression of Cardiff’s second half cannot be something we produce only when three goals down and humiliation is staring us in the face. It needs to be there from the first whistle at Blackburn.
Turn up at Ewood Park playing like the West Ham of Cardiff’s first half and we could be in trouble. Turn up playing like the West Ham of Cardiff’s second half and there is no reason why we shouldn’t come home with all three points. And wouldn’t it be nice, just for once, if we could achieve it without having to come back from three goals down first? Wouldn’t it be nice to take an early lead for once?
Scott Parker’s West Ham are underway. He was a superb player for us and I hope he can be equally as good at the helm. He comes with the reputation of playing dour defensive football, but with a successful three promotions from the Championship behind him, but also with little success in the top flight. Was that totally down to him or the resources at his disposal? After 45 minutes in Cardiff the new era appeared to have begun with disaster. After 90, it felt rather more like hope. Now comes the important part which is proving that the remarkable second half wasn’t simply a comeback, but the first glimpse of what the new manager intends West Ham to become. A much better appointment than Lopetegui, Potter or Nuno I reckon. Give the man I chance.
We all see games differently but for what it’s worth my ratings below are based on how I saw the performances of our players in the game.
Hermansen 5, Veltman 5.5, Mavropanos 6.5, Kilman 6.5, Morato 2, Magassa 5, Engels 7.5, Mukasa 7.5, Bowen 8.5, Taty 1, Solomon 3. Subs. Mayers 7, Kante 7, Piroe 6.5, Austbo 7, Soucek (not long enough)
