KUMB.com
Filed: Sunday, 15th April 2012
By: Staff Writer
Sam Allardyce reflects on his biggest win since joining West Ham, the club's
biggest win since 1998 - and a win that keeps the Irons firmly in the hunt
for automatic promotion, in the post-match press conference...
The club's biggest win in 14 years for West Ham, Sam. A good time to get it?
It is a good time to get it. Long overdue, isn't it? That's the problem. But
there's nothing we could do about that coming into today's game, what we had
to do was deliver a performance and more importantly we had to win three
points no matter what. To win them in such style is thrilling today for me,
the team, the fans and for everybody at West Ham itself. It just gives
everybody a little bit more belief that we still have a chance to do what we
wanted to do from the start of the season. The goals and the performance we
gave - a thrilling performance - has excited everybody that little bit more.
I'm glad about that, it should give us great confidence and hopefully
clawing six goals back on Southampton could be a factor now. But everything
about today's game was fantastic, from the very start right to the very end,
of course. It was a well-deserved six-goal win; I don't think anybody could
argue that we were worth any less than six by the way that we played and the
chances we created.
What was the difference today?
I think it was a case of taking the second half performance against
Birmingham - and probably the first half performance against Reading - into
today's game and to stop the players making mistakes. We said we will play
in the opposition's half, we will not slow the game down and build up too
slowly and let people get behind the ball. What we'll do is play good
football in the opposition half when we get there - and that means that we
won't get too edgy at the back and we won't commit too many unforced errors
like we did against Reading and against Birmingham. People said to me
Reading played really well, but they didn't. The only reasons they said they
played really well is because they beat us.
Everything about what we did today was right and it was a total performance
for 95 minutes, which is unusual. When Brighton got in the game, which we
knew they would do at some stage, we snuffed them out, we choked them out -
and then when we had the opportunity ,we finished them off. Like I said, I'm
delighted for everybody today and now it's onto Tuesday night. Let's see if
we can keep up this magnificent away record of winning and then see where we
go from there. We're in the race still, we've put ourselves in a good
position.
We always knew that somebody was going to lose points in last night's game.
It was Southampton; the goal difference was nine [in their favour] and now
it's only three so we've got a little bit extra today. The three points was
everything that we needed and then we got a bonus because we've got closer
to Southampton's goal difference.
Is the pressure on Southampton now, or do you still feel under pressure?
We still feel under pressure because we've got no margin of error. For us,
there's none in terms of the next three football matches. From our point of
view it's got to be three wins. All we can do is make sure we win on Tuesday
and then we can all rush to see what the results are [elsewhere]. If
anybody hasn't slipped up either on Tuesday or Wednesday, whenever they
play, it still means we're not out of it. It just means we have go on and
try and win the next one - and if somebody slips up then, we might take
advantage of it. What we're trying to do is make sure that we've got
something to play for [in terms of] automatic promotion come Hull City on
the last game of the season.
Is the belief back now that you've ended the home run [without winning]?
In many ways, the performance the last time we won at home was just as good
as this because we beat Millwall with ten men after eight minutes. It was
outstanding. But the amount of victories that have eluded us here has just
been so, so disappointing. [Had we not dropped so many points] we'd still be
in the top two places but unfortunately we're not and we can't cry over
that, it's come and it's gone. We've blown it but we've given ourselves a
chance. We're scoring lots of goals, we've scored 11 goals in three games
now - four at Barnsley, three against Birmingham and six today... So my
maths is crap! [laughs]
A few words on Vaz Te?
Outstanding. He was scintillating today and outstanding in the games before
that. He scored 14 goals in all competitions before he joined us from
Barnsley and what is it - eight or nine now? Ten? In ten starts. A hat-trick
today as well, three great goals. The first one was a blistering thunderbolt
that dipped and weaved and moved. People will look at the 'keeper on that
but I don't think he had any chance with the power. The header on the far
post was over a defender, he made sure he was brave enough to head it in -
and the overhead kick was the icing on the cake, It was the best piece of
technique you'll see in both [top] leagues. They're still raving about the
goal that Wayne Rooney scored against Liverpool; it was as good as that one.
Has he surpassed your expectations? Is he a better player than you realised?
Don't forget I had him at 16 at Bolton so I knew the talent was there, but
you often see young players drift out of the game and abuse their talent.
That's what we say in the game - "don't abuse your talent, son", because
it's not just talent that makes you a top level professional footballer. The
only way he's become the talent that he has is because he's been down and
left to ponder his career; whether he wanted to resurrect it, or whether he
wanted to be another one of those talent-wasters. He went out [of the game]
after Bolton; a knee injury didn't do him a lot of favours, to be fair, in
his early stages. Which was sad, and he found that difficult to recover. He
got cast aside - I think he ended up in Greece for a year, in Scotland for a
year and then he ended up at Barnsley. But once I'd had a look at him - and
once I'd found out that he was in the last six months of his contract - I
said to David Sullivan, "we've got to get this lad, I think he'll be great".
And he has been - so let's hope he keeps it up.
Thank you lads.
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Poyet on... West Ham United
KUMB.com
Filed: Sunday, 15th April 2012
By: Staff Writer
Brighton boss Gus Poyet reflects on what he described as an "embarrassing"
defeat against Sam Allardyce's reinvigorated West Ham...
Where did it go wrong, Gus? Where did it start?
I think it's easy - from the start. I wasn't surprised, we knew how West Ham
would start the game. We knew the kind of pressure they would put on us and
we knew that we had to go through the first 20 minutes without giving them a
lift and keeping the score at 0-0. We knew that but we didn't deal with it,
sometimes we couldn't deal it.
It's not about what you want, it's about what you can do - and we couldn't
today. We were not as good as the power and strength of West Ham. There's a
fine line between being really disappointed because we didn't do things the
right way or because we couldn't do things the right way. I'll let you
analyse that.
Is this one harder to take than what happened at Liverpool [when Brighton
were beaten 6-1]?
Well there are similarities. We didn't concede as many own goals as at
Liverpool; we conceded three that day, today we conceded only one. We
conceded a couple of funny goals at Liverpool and four were funny for me
today. So a coincidence? I'll let you know whether that's coincidence or
something we need to change.
It must hurt you a bit though?
Yeah, the result is embarrassing. It wasn't what we were expecting. When you
know what is going to happen and you cannot deal with that? As I said, I
need to ask myself if it was because we were not good enough on the day or
whether we are not able, as a group of players, to deal with that.
And in terms of your play-offs hopes?
We need to win the next three. We will try. If we play like we did on
Tuesday we've got a great chance, if we play like we did today we've got no
chance. That difference in the level of your performance makes the
difference between being top six or not. The teams that are consistent have
a great chance of being in the top six.
The good thing about today is that we cannot blame anyone. There is luck,
there are referee's decisions - today there is nothing. It's all about us,
what we did and what didn't do. I'll analyse today a lot.
For the people in Brighton who thought we'd get to the Premier League, I
told you a few months ago that we are not ready. I think Liverpool and West
Ham showed where we are. We are not ready, it's as simple as that. So if
some people want us to go up and play Manchester City and Chelsea, I'm not
going - I'm staying at home! [laughs] I'm not going to go to these places
with our team because it's not fair.
You said you can still go up by winning the last three...
Today was the first time that I didn't even check the other results. I'm not
expecting anyone else to help us, we need three wins and nine points then
we've got a chance. But we haven't won one in five, how are we going to win
three in a row?
You talked in the build-up to the game about how you used to love playing
here...
But I never conceded three goals in ten minutes here as a player. It was a
different game, especially the way we played. We were a bit naive. I thought
that the Liverpool result was an accident because it only happened once. But
no it was not, why not? Because it happened again today. But I know what
I've got to change probably for next year. I know what we need to improve.
So are there some players who should be worried about their futures at
Brighton?
I wouldn't be so hard on them. Like I said, if you had come from another
planet and had seen us against Reading at the Amex on Tuesday you would have
thought we were the team at the top and Reading who were chasing the
play-offs. So why did that happen on Tuesday night yet four days later we've
been so naive? So I won't be too hard on the players but we need to change
if we really want to compete for the Premier League.
I'm not going to lie in order to sell tickets and say, "next year we'll be
top six". Next year we're going to have three top-class teams coming down,
three well-known teams coming up - if you think about Sheffield and Charlton
- plus the ones that don't go up [from the Championship]. So to compete with
all of them we need to be better. We need to be stronger, we need to be
quicker, we need to be more intelligent - and we need better players.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Vinny's Brighton Report
Vinny 12:07 Sun Apr 15
West Ham Online
West Ham United 6 Brighton & Hove Albion 0
West Ham well and truly ended their poor run of results at home with a
stunning victory over Brighton in the clubs biggest win since 1998.
This was a wonderful day and a true joy to watch. There can be little better
than watching your team score six goals and I am not exaggerating when I say
it could have been even more.
We were clinical in front of goal and when you have a player like Ricardo
Vaz Te you know you have a chance to score goals. His three goals were
outstanding and that third goal I will not tire of watching.
The frustrations of the last couple of months all seemed to be taken out on
a shell shocked Brighton side who never got going as we scored three goals
in the first ten minutes.
With Reading beating Southampton at St Marys on Friday night it would seem
as though the Play Off's will be where we are heading at the end of the
season. With this result we are now three points behind Southampton and by
winning six goals we have reduced the goal difference between ourselves and
Southampton to just three goals.
Whilst I still hold out some hope (you have to have some) I am realistic and
know that it is very unlikely that automatic promotion will be achieved this
season. The damage done in all those home games since beating Millwall at
the beginning of February has been too great but the fact is no matter what
happens between now and the end of the season, to beat Brighton 6-0 is
outstanding.
The way we played was similar in the early stages to how we finished against
Birmingham as we bombarded the Brighton area in a breathless opening
quarter. It was attack after attack and I sincerely mean that we fully
deserved the score line.
We had energy in midfield with Lansbury and O'Neil doing a lot of the
running which allowed Noble time on the ball to spread passes about and gave
Nolan room to move into.
In the second half especially when going forward we actually were able to
support Cole and get bodies around him which saw us regularly get onto the
flick on or pick up the second ball.
We were tactically spot on and this was the type of performance that perhaps
we had been expecting to see all season when playing at Upton Park.
Allardyce stated in the post match interview that he was happy that the West
Ham fans had got to see a performance at home like our performances away.
I believe it was more the fact that we put in a positive performance and
looked to attack the opposition instead of letting them dictate the play and
gain confidence from our indecision.
The Team
Sam Allardyce made three changes to the side who started against Birmingham
City last Monday.
In defence, George McCartney was out with the injury which forced him to
come off against Birmingham and he was replaced by Matthew Taylor who took
up the left back slot.
At centre half, Abdoulaye Faye was dropped to the bench with Guy Demel
coming into the team. Demel went to right back with James Tomkins taking up
his rightful position at centre half alongside Winston Reid.
Nicky Maynard was dropped to the bench with Henri Lansbury coming into the
midfield.
First Half
Having made a number of Grand National bets (to which I won none) and a
number of drinks in the Britannia in Plaistow I arrived in the ground just
in time to see our first chance of the game as Vaz Te passed to Lansbury who
hit a shot which took a slight deflection, looped over the keeper and hit
off the bar. This was within the first minute.
But our next shot on goal would be even better and what a shot it was.
With three minutes on the clock Taylor won a challenge and Nolan knocked the
ball inside to Ricardo Vaz Te who hit an unstoppable which Brighton keeper
Brezovan didn't even see as it flew past him to make it 1-0.
Whilst you can argue that the keeper should have perhaps done better the
sheer power in the shot was outstanding and a really excellent goal.
So we had got that early goal and the hope was that we could build on it.
And we certainly did.
With 6 minutes gone we were so close to scoring the second goal in a great
move which saw Taylor cross for Nolan to meet it on the volley but Brezovan
would make a terrific save to stop it from going in.
But we were not to be denied two minutes later.
At this point it had been a bombardment of the Brighton area and it was just
attack after attack.
A shot from Kevin Nolan was blocked by the ball came out to O'Neil who put
in a brilliant deep cross for Ricardo Vaz Te to get above his marker and
head low past the keeper who couldn't keep it out and make it 2-0.
They were two very different goals from Vaz Te but it just showed his eye
for goal and this boy is on fire at the moment.
The tempo didn't cease after the second goal and West Ham were not going to
stop the destruction of Brighton just yet.
The visitors just couldn't get a hold of the ball and it looked almost as
though we had more players on the pitch.
With the ten minute mark just passing we would strike again.
Carlton Cole was fouled (as he was most of the day) and a free kick was
awarded half way inside the Brighton half.
Taylor hit his left foot free kick to the back post for James Tomkins to
firmly win the header and put this across goal for Kevin Nolan to have the
simple task of putting over the line to make it 3-0.
This had all taken place with just ten and half minutes on the clock.
We did take the foot off the gas for the rest of the half and Brighton saw a
lot of the ball and had bundles of possession. It was not too much of a
surprise that this was the case and although there were murmurs of
frustration among some of the support there was no way we could have kept
that tempo up for the rest of the game.
We should have scored a third when Vaz Te won possession and ran towards the
area and found Cole who got into the box but his shot was incredibly weak
and a very disappointing effort.
With three minutes of the half remaining Brighton had their best chance of
the game and only for a great save from Robert Green they would have pulled
a goal back to give them some hope.
It came from a corner which saw Cole inadvertently flick on a Greer head
towards goal which Green clawed out despite many of the Brighton players
claiming it had gone over the line. It hadn't.
Vaz Te was out to get his third before half time and hit another long range
effort with similar power to his first but Brezovan got behind it and beat
the ball away.
And even in injury time we had another chance as a pass was slipped through
to Lansbury who was in on goal but thrashed his shot high and wide when he
probably should have finished.
Half time 3-0. Sensational.
Second Half
There were no changes for either side at half time as Brighton knew that if
they were to have any chance of getting anything from the game they needed
to get an early goal.
But we continued to dictate the play and started the half strongly.
An early corner saw Brighton only half clear and Vaz Te attempted an
ambitious overhead kick which he did not connect with well enough. He would
have another go at this soon enough though.
Ten minutes into the half Allardyce made his first change of the game with
Gary O'Neil coming off and Jack Collison replacing him.
With just under 30 minutes remaining we would score our fourth and what a
finish it would be.
Another deep cross from Matthew Taylor saw Cole win the ball and knock it
down for Lansbury to be bundled over in the area for what seemed a sure
penalty but the referee (who was terrible I might add) gave nothing and as
the defender put his header into the air Ricardo Vaz Te acrobatically
smashed his volley into the goal to complete his hat trick.
The finish from Vaz Te was emphatic and exactly how you want your forward to
score goals. A superb diverse hat trick from a player who just gets better
and better.
Just two minutes after scoring the fourth goal we would find our fifth.
Cole was played through down the left and ran towards the area, he cut
inside on and hit a right foot shot which deflected off the foot of Henri
Lansbury and past the keeper for 5-0.
Carlton Cole may have been accredited with the goal but as it hit Lansbury
and this deflection took the ball in this is clearly Lansbury's goal.
In a way it was similar to a goal which Diego Tristan scored a few seasons
ago when Cole again hit a shot which simply hit the Spanish striker and went
in.
Vaz Te was taken off on 76 minutes to a standing ovation from the crowd.
John Carew replaced him.
A sixth goal came on 78 minutes when a corner from Noble was met by
Brighton's Gary Dicker who made a hash of his clearance and turned the ball
into the back of the net to make it 6-0.
Carew had a chance as a good shooting opportunity presented itself but for
some reason he decided to try and beat another defender forgetting that he
possess no skill or pace to do so.
There was one more good chance remaining in the game as a cross into the
area saw Tomkins head the ball across goal which found Nolan who looked as
though he just needed to tap the ball in but he put his shot wide when he
probably should have tried to head the ball.
Nevertheless I was pretty pleased with six and I like most stayed at the end
to applauded a stupendous performance and a remarkable result.
Player Reviews
Robert Green
A welcome clean sheet at Upton Park in a game where he had little to do but
when called into action like in the first half he made a great save and was
always alert.
Guy Demel
Although he has started a couple of games previous, this was the first time
I had actually noticed him. He was strong in the tackle and has a bit of
pace about him. He is not a player that Brighton wanted to try and take on
and hopefully he will cement the right back position from here till the end
of the season.
James Tomkins
A top display from Tomkins who showed that when you play him at centre half
he is clearly our best defender and a certain candidate for the Hammer of
the Year award. He is always dangerous from free kicks and his assist with a
header across goal for Nolan was typical.
Winston Reid
There is a lot more aggression to his game which he lacked in this first
season at the club. No longer does he look easy to beat or weak in the
tackle and the Championship seems to have had a good effect on his
development. He was excellent throughout.
Matthew Taylor
A good display from Taylor who saw many of his crosses lead to goals or good
chances. His cross for Nolan early on nearly found a goal, the free kick for
our third led to a goal, the cross for Cole to head back for the fourth led
to a goal and his general play was decent throughout. No complaints about
this display.
Gary O'Neil
A busy performance from O'Neil who is one of the hardest workers we have in
our side. His main contribution of the game was a delightful cross for Vaz
Te to score the second goal and since he has a had run in the side we have
been playing better football.
Mark Noble
Sat deep and controlled the game. Did well to dictate the tempo and put his
foot on the ball when needed. Made a few good challenges throughout the game
and although he looked a bit knackered at times in the second half this was
still a good showing.
Kevin Nolan
Scored his 12th goal of the season which really is an excellent return for a
midfielder. Involved throughout the game and put himself about as he usually
tries to do.
Henri Lansbury
After an encouraging second half against Birmingham, Lansbury again put in a
positive display which I was quite impressed with. Looks fitter than earlier
in the season and will look to cement his place in the midfield for the
remaining games. Despite the goal being given to Cole, Lansbury got the
final touch and without it I don't think it would have gone in.
Ricardo Vaz Te
A magnificent performance from the Portuguese forward who has now taken his
tally to ten goals since signing for the club which is an impressive return.
He was skilful, hardworking, and always a threat. Man of the match.
Carlton Cole
Should have scored in the first half but the effort was tame although he had
a very good second half and caused Brighton a number of problems. Brighton
were finding it difficult to deal with him and were going in on him hard
which the referee chose to ignore. Was unlucky not to get on the score sheet
but the deflection off Lansbury will surely take this goal away from him.
Subs Used
Jack Collison (on for O'Neil 55 mins)
Nowhere near as effective as O'Neil and I didn't really notice him in his
time on the pitch. Fallen behind Lansbury and O'Neill in the pecking order
for me.
Danny Collins (On for Demel 68 mins)
For a moment I had forgotten he had come on. We were not troubled
defensively so Collins didn't have too much to do.
John Carew (on for Vaz Te 77 mins)
Ahead of Maynard? Was Baldock injured? If not how can this lump of former
footballer get on the bench?
Subs Not Used: Henderson, Maynard
Bookings: Cole
Man Of The Match: Ricardo Vaz Te
Brighton & Hove Albion: Brezovan, Painter, Calderon, Greer, El-Abd, Dicker,
Bridcutt, Navarro, Assulin, Vicente, Barnes
Subs: Ankergren, Noone, Jara, LuaLua, Mackail-Smith
Attendance: 32, 339
Overall
Automatic promotion may be unlikely but we can still end the season on a
high and perform like this in our remaining three fixtures and we may see
similar results.
We had fight, we had attitude and we had Ricardo Vaz Te. When you have a
player like this in your side you know that something can happen at any
moment and at West Ham we have always loved an exciting player who makes
things happen and scores goals.
This was a devastating display and Brighton were completely outclassed and
outplayed from start to finish.
This is how I had hoped we would apply ourselves at home this season and
that any team coming to the Boleyn would find it tough to get a kick.
Deluded I may have been but this squad was more than capable of doing this
in my opinion and it is shame they have not shown this when playing at home
this season.
Next Game – Bristol City (a) Tuesday 17th April 7.45pm Kick Off
I will not be attending this game sadly due to work so there will be no
report but hopefully we will do what we did at Barnsley and not let them
have a kick.
Bristol City are in danger of being relegated and really have to win so this
will not be an easy game by any stretch of the imagination, but we surely
have enough in our team to beat them as we have done with many of the sides
we have played away this campaign.
The fact is if automatic promotion is something that can be achieved
realistically then we have to win our next three games. There will be no
other chances and we need to win our games and hope that luck is smiling
down on us regarding Southampton's results.
But whatever happens, this game against Brighton will live long in the
memory because it is a rare thing for West Ham to be winning games 6-0 and I
will savour this one.
Sam's View
"It was a tremendous victory for us today I think that since Millwall at
home this is close to as good as we have played.
"The pressure we were under to deliver a result was huge and the quality of
our football and final third of play was fantastic.
"We started the game so brightly and we scored the goals that we deserved to
score from the amount of chances we created. Kevin Nolan drove the team on
today and got a goal too. Carlton Cole played very well up top and got a
goal too. Matt Taylor did well filling in at left back.
"There wasn't really a player that didn't do his job properly today. Vaz put
in a scintillating performance today he took his goals very, very well."
"We got a clean sheet too so if we carry on like this, hopefully we can win
all three games we have got left. The six goals also is a massive benefit to
our goal difference, we are now only three goals behind them and in the end
that could make a massive difference. All we can do now is win on Tuesday
and hope somebody else slips up."
Season 2011/12 Scorers and Red Cards
Kevin Nolan - 12 (12 League)
Carlton Cole - 11 (11 League)
Ricardo Vaz Te - 10(10 League)
Mark Noble - 8 (8 League)
Sam Baldock - 5 (5 League)
Own Goal - 4 (4 League)
Jack Collison - 3 (3 League)
James Tomkins - 3 (3 League)
Gary O'Neil - 2 (2 League)
Nicky Maynard - 2 (2 League)
Henri Lansbury - 2 (2 League)
Winston Reid - 2 (2 League)
John Carew - 2 (2 League)
Frederique Piquionne - 2 (2 League)
Papa Bouba Diop - 1 (1 League)
Joey O'Brien - 1 (1 League)
Matthew Taylor - 1 (1 League)
Julien Faubert - 1 (1 League)
Frank Nouble - 1 (1 League)
George McCartney - 1 (1 League)
Danny Collins - 1 (1 League)
Scott Parker - 1 (1 League)
Junior Stanislas - 1 (1 Cup)
Red Cards
Callum McNaughton - 1 (vs Aldershot home)
Frederique Piquionne - 1 (vs Portsmouth home)
Joey O'Brien - 1 (vs Reading away)
Jack Collison - 1 (vs Reading away)
Kevin Nolan - 1 (vs Millwall home)
Matthew Taylor - 1 (vs Southampton home)
Robert Green - 1 (vs Blackpool away)*
*rescinded by FA on appeal
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West Ham 6-0 Brighton: Hee-awesome
Published 21:30 15/04/12 By Ann Gripper
The Mirror
Ricardo Vaz Te dazzled with a hat-trick – but Kevin Nolan still thinks his
team-mate is a Donkey [keep cap]. While some rate Wayne Rooney as Shrek, Vaz
Te's distinctive hairstyle reminds Nolan of the animated ogre's four-legged
sidekick, voiced by Eddie Murphy in the hit films. Eight goals in five games
have put the West Ham striker just two behind leading scorer Nolan, who was
also on the scoresheet. But the captain says he will not be green with envy
if the new recruit overtakes him in the scoring stakes. Nolan said: "He's
got a bad haircut. I always say he looks like Donkey from Shrek - that's who
he reminds me of. He's gobby like him too, definitely. "I don't mind if he
ends up top scorer, I really don't. I'm happy with my output for the season
but I'm not finished yet. "Hopefully I can score a couple more but if he
scores another five or six I would be even more delighted."
Nolan was at Bolton when Vaz Te arrived at the Reebok as a teenager. But,
after a promising start, injury saw him released in 2010. A brief stint in
Greece was followed by a spell at Hibernian before a trial at Barnsley last
summer earned him a season-long contract – with Sam Allardyce adding him to
the West Ham cast in January for £500,000.
And Nolan is happy to see the move working out for a player he always
thought had the potential to go far. Nolan said: "He has been great since he
came in. He has worked his socks off to get back to this level. He is at a
top team in the Championship but he should be in the Premier League.
Hopefully he will be by the end of the season. What he has done has been
brilliant and hats off to him. "We had him and Joey O'Brien at Bolton as 16
and 17-year-olds and when you watched them play you knew they were special.
They have just been very unfortunate with injuries. They were the top
youngsters you thought would go on to do really well. "He has a lot to offer
and if he can steer clear of injury, keep the confidence up and keep doing
what he is doing then he will be a great shining light for us. I'm just
delighted we have got him."
After recent unhappy endings as West Ham have faltered in the race for
automatic promotion, Brighton's visit had a more fairytale feel for Irons
fans as the club notched its most emphatic scoreline since 1998. Vaz Te led
the way as the floodgates finally opened at Upton Park, his 25-yard effort
deceiving keeper Peter Brezovan to put them in front inside three minutes.
His headed second came just five minutes later, and Nolan turned in a third
before 11 minutes was on the clock.
That breathless opening took the sting out of the game, but West Ham hit the
sorry Seagulls again after the break. Vaz Te completed his hat trick with an
overhead kick, a Carlton Cole effort flicked in off the heel of Henri
Lansbury and Mark Noble's corner cannoned in off the foot of Brighton's Gary
Dicker to complete a miserable afternoon for the visitors.
Now five points outside the play-off places, Gus Poyet's team are keen to
put the thrashing behind them as quickly as possible, starting against
Watford tomorrow.
Brighton's Marcos Painter said: "Losing 6-0 is embarrassing but you can't
dwell on the past. "You don't lose 6-0 many times in your career but it can
help you as a player to learn from it and turn things round hopefully. "It's
gone and I know me and the rest of the players are going to take it on the
chin and move on to the next game on Tuesday. If we give up now it's
pointless. "We've just got to look now to win the next three games of the
season and see where it takes us."
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West Ham manager Sam Allardyce urges his team to do it again against Bristol
City after thrashing Brighton
Sam Allardyce's team-talk before West Ham's match at Bristol City on Tuesday
will be simple: go out there and do it again.
By Gerry Cox6:33PM BST 15 Apr 2012
Telegraph.co.uk
West Ham got themselves back in the chase for an automatic promotion place
with a comprehensive demolition of Brighton. The east London club's manager,
however, pointed out that their record-breaking away form is the key to a
return to the Premier League, an opportunity they cannot afford to spurn.
Allardyce's team set a club record of 12 away wins in a season when they
thrashed Barnsley 4-0 at Oakwell on their last outing, and he is hoping
their luck holds for a 13th time at Ashton Gate, as well as at Leicester
next Monday to set them up for the visit of Hull on the final day of the
season. "We're are back in the race," he said after West Ham closed the gap
on second-placed Southampton to three points and a goal difference of three,
with three games to play. "The odds are against us going straight back up,
but there are consequences if we don't, because of the financial redress.
There will be three teams coming down [from the Premier League] and they
will have more financial clout than us, although they will have to address
the situation the way we have. So it is vitally important we try to get back
this season."
Allardyce has had to be careful with the club's money, and he got a bargain
when he signed Ricardo Vaz Te, 25, from Barnsley for £500,000 in January.
The Portuguese striker's hat-trick against Brighton made it 10 goals in 10
starts, justifying Allardyce's faith in a player he has known for nearly 10
years. I signed him as a 16 year-old at Bolton and always knew he had the
talent, but you see some players abuse that talent and drop out. He's been
down and out, and left to ponder his career, and ended up in Greece and then
Barnsley. I went to watch him, and when I learned he had six months left on
his contract I told the chairmen we had to sign him. He was scintillating
today, and his third goal was as good as Wayne Rooney's overhead kick
against Manchester City."
Vaz Te's first two goals, a long shot and a header, put the West Ham 2-0
ahead inside eight minutes, and Kevin Nolan's tap-in three minutes later
ended the game as a contest. Vaz Te's spectacular third was followed by one
from Carlton Cole and an own-goal from Gary Dicker, as Brighton's outside
chances of making the play-offs effectively died. "We have no one to blame
but ourselves," admitted Brighton manager Gus Poyet. West Ham have hope,
however, starting at Bristol City. "I'll tell the lads to go out and do what
they did at Barnsley and today," said Allardyce. "If we are as clinical as
we were today we can win all three games."
Match details
West Ham (4-4-2): Green; Demel (Collins 68), Tomkins, Reid, Taylor; O'Neill
(Collison 55), Nolan, Noble Lansbury; Vaz Te (Carew 86), Cole.
Subs: Henderson, Maynard.
Booked: Cole.
Brighton (4-4-1-1): Brezovan; Calderon, Greer, El-Abd, Painter; Bridcutt,
Dicker, Navarro, Assulin (Lualua 53); Vicente (Noone 63); Barnes
(Mackail-Smith 53).
Subs: Ankergren, Jara.
Booked: Dicker.
Referee: R East (Wiltshire).
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