West Ham United Blog

Team for the Man Utd game

Pards has kept faith in the reb-born James Collins for the tough trip to Old Trafford.  We're pretty full strength for this one, let's face it, we need to be! Team;

S Hislop, L Scaloni, J Collins, D Gabbidon, P Konchesky, Y Benayoun, N Reo-Coker, H Mullins, M Etherington, D Ashton, M Harewood
Subs: J Walker, A Ferdinand, C Fletcher, T Sheringham, B Zamora

Once upon a time in Wigan

Great result up at the JJB stadium - not a free flowing performance like we would have liked, but I've always felt the sign of a good time is when it does not play so well and still wins.  An excellent 3 points to keep in touch with the European pack and in particular giving hope to my bet with a mate that we will finish above the Spurs.

Semi Final draw

And it's the one we wanted!  West Ham will play Charlton or Middlesbrough on 22 or 23 April.  This is cracking news and gives us an excellent chance to get to the FA Cup finals this year.  Both teams are very beatable on their day and I'm sure Curbs will be feeling sufficiently sentimental to not make it too difficult for us should we meet them.  As for Mclaren, hmmm, regretting going to the Boro at all now Steve, look at what could have been...?!

Hammers on Sky

Sky Sports have deemed our last away game against Brom sufficient value to put on Sky.  No doubt the prospect of seeing the soon to be FA Cup Winners against the relegation strugglers was too good to miss.  The game will now be played on Monday 1st May and frankly nothing less than 3 points will do!

Hammers into the semis

Wow, I have not even had time to rant about the Pompey defeat when the boys go and and do us very proud in the Cup once again.  Once more, they all stood up to be counted, but a few special shouts must go out...firstly to Collins who played a very solid game at the back with Danny, winning headers and making some excellent tackles.  All of the midfield were excellent, though Matty's work rate for me was once again the highlight.  And the Deano and Marlon show rolls-on.  Top performance, we never let a lacklustre City settle and if I'm honest I was pretty happy to see Bradley WP starting for them.  He is nowhere near as good as Shaun (yet) and I thought the boys of the backstuff could marshall him easily, which they did.

I am sorry to see City go out, Psycho was good humoured throughout the game and the game was entertaining and free-flowing.  The sending off of Sun Jihai was a strange one, I must admit I was surprised to see the red but looking at the replay a few times, he does raise his arms to little Matty, who seems to get bullied quite a lot these days.

Anyhoo, not worrying too much about anything else tonight, onwards to Cardiff!

Up for the Cup

Well, a performance best described as 'dogged' saw us go through to the quarter finals of the FA Cup.  I was delighted we broke our 'Bolton duck' at last before they became one of those teams we never win against (like Liverpool).  Stand out performances were Etherington and Harewood - both of these players have 'work-rate' tattoed on their forehead.  Ashton was also a close third, I really like the guy's strength and determination.  Heck, all the lads pulled together, even Scaloni impressed me.

Now, we have two crucial games in a very short space of time.  I'd love to see us get one over 'Arry's rag and bone outfit on Saturday, not just to cement our European glory trail but to shake off the ghost of 'Arry's past.  For me, there still seem to be people at upton Park who want the jowl-faced one to return.  I can't understand that at all and if they think we'd be where we are under Redknapp now, they are severly mistaken.  As for City on Monday, it will be a tough one for sure, I'll be watching their game with Wigan on Saturday with interest as well as hoping Bullard does us a favour and gives them a few knocks!

Missed out?

According to this site here we've missed out on signing Deportivo midfield Aldo Duscher - but to be honest I've not seen this story anywhere else so am not sure of its accuracy.

Hayden on the Cup match

Hayden has been looking forward to the match tomorrow night, stating 'The good thing is that we've got a chance to put things right immediately, and the feeling among all the lads is that it is going to be a very different game on Wednesday night' - let's hope he is right.  Hopefully Yossi and Nigel will return, with Deano and marlon restored to up front.  Don't know about you but I really want us to give them a good stuffing.  I'd hate it if they became one of those 'voodoo teams', like Luton!

Trounced by the Trotters

A very bad day at the office for us on Saturday.  It's not that worthwhile to analyse where it went wrong as it is patently obvious - Anton playing in an unfamiliar role, Wardie being asked to make a step-up very quickly, the weaker front two spearheading the attack.  Pards has admitted he got it wrong 'I made some changes thinking that they would make us stronger defensively, but it didn't work out like that' he said.  Bolton is a tough place to go and to me it seems like he resigned himself to defeat up and was on what Redknapp would have called a 'hiding to nothing'.  I just hope it does not have a longer effect on our confidence, we'll know on Wednesday where I expect Deano and Marlon to wreak our revenge.

Hammer Time

Not much Hammers news today, we're being linked with Mcarthy as usual and the team are gearing up for a tough game at the Reebok this Sat, but little else to stir your souls.  I did however want to take an opportunity on congratulating Arsenal for last night's performance.  Yes, I know, but come on, they're not Spurs and watching it with 2 Spurs fans who were almost crying at the end was enough to justify rooting for the Gunners.  Over the two legs they worked tirelessly for each other, albeit against an ageing and unift Madrid team, so well done Gooners, if you keep upsetting Spurs fans, you're alright by me.