Preview - Southend United
WHUFC.com
The Background
West Ham United's busy pre-season continues with their second game in less
than 48 hours with a trip to newly promoted Southend United.
The Shrimpers, under the stewardship of experienced manager Phil Brown,
gained promotion back to League One via a sudden-death penalty shootout at
Wembley in May.
Hammers manager Slaven Bilic is set to name a squad mixed of new arrivals
and highly rated youth prospects. Both Dimitri Payet and Angelo Ogbonna are
in line to make their Claret and Blue debuts, while Cheikhou Kouyate and
Diafra Sakho, who missed Thursday night's victory over Birkirkara FC through
suspension, will both return to action.
The history
Southend United were formed in May 1906, before joining the Football League
in 1920. The Essex club have competed mainly in the lower leagues of English
football, however they have enjoyed recent success winning the Football
League Trophy in 2012-13 before winning promotion back to League One last
season.
The Shrimpers play at Roots Hall Stadium, which has a capacity of just over
12,000 seats.
Team news
Southend United
Saturday's hosts have a near to full squad available. Captain John White and
David Worrall are both expected to feature as is highly rated goalkeeper
Daniel Bentley.
New signings David Mooney and Anthony Wordsworth will want to make a good
impression in front of their new home fans.
West Ham United
As the Hammers prepare for the second out of four games in a week, including
an imminent trip to Malta, Slaven Bilic will have to reshuffle his pack.
French international Dimitri Payet is in line to make his Hammers debut
after completing a summer move from Marseille. A lot has been made of the
creative midfielder's vision and technical ability, so fans of both teams
will be eagerly watching his every move.
Similarly Angelo Ogbonna is likely to get some minutes as the Italian
regains match fitness ahead of his first season in the Premier League.
Out of the youngsters available, Bilic could use Reece Oxford, Josh Cullen,
Lewis Page, Djair Parfitt-Williams and Amos Nasha, all of whom made their
senior competitive debuts against FC Lusitans.
The Hammers will be without Andy Carroll who is recovering from injury,
while Carl Jenkinson is still away and Enner Valencia only returned from
holiday this week following his participation in the Copa America.
Match facts
• The last time these two teams played competitively was back in August
2004 in the League Cup. West Ham ran out 2-0 winners at the Boleyn thanks to
a brace by Marlon Harewood. That game featured a very young Mark Noble.
• Southend were victorious the last time the two sides met at Roots Hall.
Just the one goal was enough to separate the sides in the old Division One
way back in the spring of 1993.
• Despite their relatively close vicinity, the two teams have only played
each other seven times competitively.
• Since his appointment as West Ham United manager, Slaven Bilic's men
are unbeaten in four games, scoring eight goals.
Tickets, Travel, Weather & TV Coverage
• Tickets purchased on matchday are priced at £12 Adults and £6 for
Over-65 and Under-21s.
• whufc.com will carry live updates throughout the match, with live text
commentary, photos, stats and reaction. The Club's official Twitter feed
will also have updates.
• At present, a good service is also anticipated on Greater Anglia and
c2c services out of Liverpool Street and Fenchurch Street respectively. A
regular service will run throughout the day.
• A cloudy day with sunny intervals are expected around time of kick-off,
with temperatures of 16C/61F.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Slaven's Hammers head for the seaside
WHUFC.com
Slaven Bilic is looking forward to seeing some of his new signings in action
when West Ham United head for the seaside on Saturday.
The Hammers travel to newly-promoted League One side Southend United, with
Angelo Ogbonna and Dimitri Payet both set to make their first appearances in
Claret and Blue. With fellow summer arrivals Darren Randolph and Stephen
Hendrie in the squad alongside Diafra Sakho, Cheikhou Kouyate, James Collins
and Diego Poyet, there will be plenty of first-team players on show at Roots
Hall. With around 1,500 West Ham fans set to travel down the A127 and A13,
Bilic is excited about seeing what his team can do against Phil Brown's
Shrimpers. "We have a few games coming up and of course we have many games
overall because we didn't know we were going to be participating in the UEFA
Europa League," the manager explained. "It's still a little bit messy but we
will be a bit cautious. The guys who played on Thursday, especially those
who played 90 minutes, will not participate on Saturday. "Of course our main
concern is our game against Birkirkara in Malta and whether I field the same
team again or make changes I am not saying. It is a competitive game."
Reflecting further on Thursday's narrow 1-0 win over Birkirkara, Bilic said
the tie was never likely to be a walkover. Having suffered a Europa League
Play-Off round first-leg defeat by Norwegian side Tromso while in charge of
Turkish club Besiktas before turning the game around in the second leg, the
manager knows the perils of European football early in the season. "These
games can finish five or six-nil, but it's difficult. They can if you get a
couple of early goals and have a bit of luck. If you noticed, we scored in
the final minute and they lost their motivation a little bit, so if we had
scored ten or 15 minutes before or in the first half it would have changed a
little bit. "On the other hand, as long as the opponent has a result to
cling onto, they are gaining strength and that's what happened on Thursday."
Tickets for Saturday's trip to Southend United will be available through
cash turnstiles at Roots Hall, priced at £12 Adults and £6 for Over-60s and
Under-21s.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
http://vyperz.blogspot.com
---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment