Were it not for a couple of minutes where we let Bolton in yesterday, we could have come away with a real result. As it was, we left ourselves with too high a mountain to climb by letting in two goals early on. After 20 minutes, I was contemplating not doing a proper report and just having a go at the lads but from that point, we dominated procedings and played some great football. This is more than can be said of Bolton whose route one, ugly football remains a blight on the Premier League and I hope the waste disposal unit that is relegation sees them flushed out for some time.
Onto the Hammers and there were a number of interesting performances yesterday. Firstly, Field Marshall Scott Parker's display has to be elevated above all others. He seemed pretty wound up and his non-stop running and passing was possibly the best performance I have seen from a Hammer for some time. Carlton Cole also deserves huge credit for amking himself very busy and fighting for everything.
It's a a real blow that we lost James Collins who apparently has a hamstring injury, but James Tomkins deputised very abley and it will be interesting to watch him over the next couple of games. Di Michele is a player who I think will polarise opinion and indeed he should have taken his one on one better. But that aside, his running and ability to get in positions is excellent and I still consider him an asset. Finally Savio, this lad looks more and more interesting every time he comes on. I think the issue may turn out to be where exactly his best position is, but his touch and vision look pretty good.
Anyway, on to the stats...
Green - 5 - have to say poor positioning for the free kick, couldn't do much about the second and not much else to do apart from that!
Illunga - 7 - very lively, love this guy!
Upson - 6 - arguably caught for the second and was troubled by Kevin Davies the whole game, never really looked entirely comfortable in the battle
Collins - 6 - not on for very long
Spector - 6 - peach of a cross for our goal but occasional poor distribution was a let down
Collison - 5 - didn't get into his rhythm for this match and was rightly substituted
Parker - 9 - exemplary performance from Scotty, international class
Noble - 6 - full of running as ever but at times his decision making was questionable
Behrami - 6 - wonder if he was fully fit as he flitted in and out of this game
Cole - 8 - worked very hard all game and his head didn't go down at all
Di Michele - 7 - likewise, he chased the ball all game and clearly wanted to get a goal, only criticism could be that he is over-eager
Subs - Tomkins 7 - Savio 7 - Sears - 6
Zola/Clarke - 7 - did not allow the team to fall asleep and orchestrated the comeback
If we play like that every week and keep our defensive concentration, we should be in for a comfortable run in and should also be able see of Middlesbrough on Wednesday nifght in our next game which is a cup one live on ITV. Up the 'ammers!
Scott Parker had a great game going forward but if you look at the video he failed to track Davies as he ran into the box to score Boltons 2nd. Its what players do off the ball that is important as on it.
Posted by: Mike Austin | 25/02/2009 at 17:46