West Ham 2 Derby County 1

Great Expectations.

I just wanted to get that off my chest because it sums up the problem we have faced this season.  Expectations that because we spent some money, we should be Champions League.  Expectations that because we survived relegation, we should be Champions League.  Expectations that because our new Icelandic owners mentioned it as a part of a 5 year plan, we should be Champions League.  Well, let me tell all those muppets who booed the team yesterday, if you want to see Champions League, p*ss of to the Emirates or the Bridge because you are not goint to see it at Upton Park for some time and fans like me who have supported the club for 25+ years know better.

I've been racking my brains for booing of a victory in history, not only at West Ham but at any football ground, and I can't really think of one.  The closest I've come to it is Old Trafford where they might see someone off 1-0 and it's met with hesitant applause rather than any rapture.  But booing a team placed in 10th with 14 injuries after a relegation threatened season?  No, no way.

Sure, I know where it comes from.  Some people just hate Curbishley and won't accept him no matter what he does.  I agree he does have limitations, some of his signings have not been great  and he may or may not be the man to build on tenth place.  But, you know  Ferguson bought Djemba-Djemba, Redknapp bought Song and Camara, not every signing is a great one.  Other people just want 'total football' like those fickle Geordies up North.  Well, total football is difficult when you are blooding two youngsters at home, your main striker calls a sickie hours before the match and you have an injury room full of crocks.  Let's have some patience for crying out loud.  Let's wait till we've got a team of Bellamy, Sears, Ashton, Solano, Parker, Noble, Ljungberg, Upson, Green, Dyer and Faubert and they are playing together consistently.  Because I'm excited about that and I'm not going to boo and hiss just because I want it and I want it now and if Sears isn't scoring a hat trick or Ljungberg isn't beating 5 men, I want my money back.

Is the modern football fan a reflection on society as a whole?  Is all our personal debt down to wanting it now, this lifestyle we see of footballers and WAGS?  And does that translate into an impatience with life, paying for something and screaming if it does not breed immediate success?  The anger that was football hooliganism is controlled outside the ground so it unleashes itself in the form of spittle at our 'heroes'?  Or is our alienation with these footballers with their milions just so far gone, we express our anger with them at every given opportunity, even when we scrap through with a victory?

I'm not sure what it is, but it is something deep and endemic in our society.  I used to go to football to escape the not so fun bits in my life.  When watching a football match becomes one of the not so fun things, then society really does have a problem.

Rubbish game though, wasn't it?