Daily WHUFC News - 22nd April 2013

Boleyn goal thrills Jarvis
WHUFC.com
West Ham United winger Matt Jarvis was delighted to net his first home goal
on Saturday
21.04.2013

Hammers winger Matt Jarvis found the back of the net for the first time at
the Boleyn Ground on Saturday after his cross eluded the Wigan defence and
was allowed to drift into the far bottom corner of the net. Despite both
Mohamed Diame and Kevin Nolan attempting to make contact with the ball on
the way past Latics keeper Joel, Jarvis' effort added a second goal to his
West Ham tally. "I was just pleased to see it go in at the far post," he
told West Ham TV. "I was trying to get a good cross in and hope that if it
does miss everyone, it goes in. I'm delighted with it. "Generally that's the
area you want to hit and luckily today it went in. "I'm very pleased because
to chip in with a goal is always nice and it's been something that I've
really wanted to do. "Wigan are a great passing team and we had to really
dig deep today and show what a good defensive side we are. "They were on top
for long periods of the game but we took our chances and punished them, but
we had to really work hard to keep the clean sheet. Our back four have
excellent all season and today was no different."

Saturday's victory over Roberto Martinez's side sees the Hammers edge past
the 40-point mark and Jarvis admitted the dressing room was buzzing. "It's
brilliant! It's one those when you come in at full time and the manager is
delighted. All of the players are relieved we got the three points and now
we can look ahead to the next fixture." Nolan notched up his 100th career
goal when his slick volley gave the claret and blue army a 2-0 advantage and
Jarvis was quick to praise his the skipper. He added: "Kevin [Nolan] is a
fantastic player and a great leader and I am delighted for him to get his
100th career goal. It's very much deserved. We've all seen him finish like
that many times before, he does it all of the time." "I think we have shown
all season what a good side we are, particularly at home and we can use our
recent form to push us on in the remaining games of the season and get as
high up the league as we can. "It's a tough game to go next, away to
Manchester City but we can take a lot from this and it's a great result."

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Maguire's debut delight
WHUFC.com
Sean Maguire celebrated a first start for the Development Squad with his
first Hammers goal
21.04.2013

Sean Maguire is thrilled to be up and running for West Ham United after
marking his full debut with the opening goal in a topsy-turvy 3-2 Barclays
Under-21 Premier League win over Wolverhampton Wanderers. The 18-year-old
forward has had to wait his turn since making the switch from Waterford
United in January, having made just four substitute appearances prior to
Friday night. But now that the Republic of Ireland youth international has a
first start and goal under his belt, he is setting his sights on a
productive end to an already eventful campaign. He told West Ham TV: "I'm
very happy to be honest with you. It has been a good while coming, before
that an ankle injury had me out for about four weeks and I'm delighted now
to actually be starting. "It kicks on from here and hopefully that will be
the first of many. I'm looking forward to the upcoming games and hopefully
we can end the season strongly. "I thought I had been training well the last
few weeks and the goal was just the icing on the cake. I'm planning to kick
on now and get a few more goals before the end of the season."

Maguire needed just eleven minutes to open his Hammers account, showing all
his composure in front of goal to seize on a defensive mishap and slot home.
It was the highlight of an excellent all-round display for the teenage
frontman, who had experienced defender George Elokobi for company in the
first half.
He continued: "The goal was a mistake, the defender tried to head it back to
the keeper and I thought I'd take a chance and luckily enough it fell
straight to me. I took it around the 'keeper, it was a tight angle and it
took forever to go in. I was just standing there watching, but fortunately
it went in and I was just delighted "Nick [Haycock] said he was pleased with
my performance and personally I thought I did very well. At times I could
have done better, I could have held it up better. But it's my first 90
minutes in a while and my calves started to cramp up but I kept going. "It
was a good experience coming up against George Elokobi. It's a once in a
lifetime opportunity coming up against a top-class defender. He looks like a
rugby player! But he's a very good player as well, so it was good to play
against him."

Maguire joins an already strong Irish contingent at the Boleyn Ground and
the Kilkenny forward reckons his fellow countrymen have made it a whole lot
easier to settle into east London life. "It's very different to back home in
Kilkenny but I think I'm adapting to it well. The lads are all making me
feel very welcome. They're all great and I don't have a bad word to say
about any of them. "Joey O'Brien and Stephen Henderson both talk to me as
well and I'm really good pals with Eoin Wearen, who has helped me to settle
into the club. [Fellow Republic of Ireland U19 international] Kieran Sadlier
lives me with in digs, so I couldn't really be any happier."

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42 Points and 10th place, the job is virtually done!
By S J Chandos
West Ham Till I Die

So, it was third time lucky with Wigan! After suffering the 1-4 home defeat
in the League Cup and the 2-1 reverse in the PL fixture up at Wigan. The
team looked a little jaded after their sterling efforts against Man Utd on
Wednesday evening, but they were pretty ruthless in taking their chances.
Regardless whether the performance fell below that in mid-week, the fact is
that they delivered the three points and virtually guaranteed our survival
this season. Now, they must attempt to push on and ensure a top 10 finish.
To do that we should aim for a minimum of a six point return from our final
four fixtures. Basically, that probably means winning the two home fixtures
against Newcastle Utd and Reading. Anything from the away fixtures at Man
City and Everton would be a nice bonus. If we exceed that target or get
their via another route, i.e. winning one of the away fixtures, then fine.

I see that Sam Allardyce let off some steam about all the fallacies about
West Ham's playing style under him. After the Man Utd match he pointed out
how well the team passed the ball and the fact that the direct ball from the
back was only utilised when necessary. Absolutely right, West Ham played
some good passing football on Wednesday night, as they have done on other
occasions this season. My view on Allardyce is well known, he is a
pragmatist, who utilises the tactics that he fells will work best. If he can
pass it he will, if he needs to go direct then so be it. As Alan Hanson said
on a recent MoTD programme (quoting Bob Paisley) its not about the long ball
or the short ball, its about the playing the right ball. I have enjoyed West
Ham's home performances this season, although I concede that the away
performances have been somewhat more functional. I agree with those that
state that they would have liked to see a bit more adventure in the away
fixtures. Ideally, what we need is more pace in the team, so that we can
play an effective, fast counter-attacking game on our travels. We have pace
in the form of Jarvis and Diame, but it is noticeable that, too often this
season, when we have got a break away the support and the options are
invariably not there.


Two of the highlights of recent matches have been the good form of both
Carroll and Jarvis. Both players have hit a rich vein of form and have been
instrumental in our current unbeaten run of results. Another highlight was
the good form shown by James Tomkins, a defender who is destined for the
top. He possesses all the assets of a good defender and just needs to work
on some key aspects of his game (i.e. positioning and avoiding playing too
square when marking forwards) but he will get there. Unfortunately, in
keeping with the stop-start nature of his season, he has picked up an injury
just as he started to shine again. I sincerely hope that the injury has not
ended his season and he gets a chance to play again before pre-season. Two
players who have been unsung heroes this season are O'Brien and O'Neill.
Joey O'Brien has been quietly effective at full-back and I know that he is
highly rated by his team mates. While Gary O'Neill has been a model
professional, being patient and coming in and doing a good job whenever
called upon to do so. He is one of those players that does the graft that
allows other to play; while also being very efficient in his use of the
ball. Indeed, his pass completion rate this season has consistently been 80%
plus and that is a telling statistic. Similarly, hats off to Jussi for his
recent displays between the sticks, he has put in some outstanding displays.
But for me, the winner of the Hammer of the Year title is between Winston
Reid and Mo Diame. My vote is for Reid, who has been excellent all season,
with Diame a close runner up.

Finally, it was good to see the focus upon the activities of the West Ham
United Community Sports Trust (WHUCST) at the Wigan match. I am sure that a
lot of fans did not realise that West Ham's community work was led by a
charitable Trust, linked to the club. Well, the actual situation is
perfectly clear now and the match programme gave a comprehensive break down
of the good work undertaken by WHUCST. In 2012-13 they have interacted with
15,000 local youngsters via their training/mentoring scheme and related
events; provided learning support to 6,000 under-achieving children via
their WHUi Learning Zone; engaged with 10,000 Newham and 8,000 Tower Hamlets
kids via their Kickz football coaching/social inclusion-community cohesion
schemes; delivered weekly disability football sessions for children with
Autism and Downs Syndrome, with more than 475 participants; a comprehensive
programme of football courses (including school based activity, breakfast
clubs and after school sessions; and health promotion programmes for local
people.

All in all, I find this work admirable and pretty impressive. Apparently,
there is a West Ham 'community feature' on the Match of The Day (MoTD)
re-run on Sunday, 28 April 2013, starting 7.35am. Probably a bit early for
most of us, but well worth recording on Sky plus or Virgin's Tivo, if you
have it. You can also check out their activities, on a regular basis, at
www.community.whufc.com. If you want to donate by text, you can do so by
texting WHUE13 £1 to 70070.

I think the WHUCST deserves the support of Hammers fans and that is why I
have included the above information here. As well as helping youngsters in
East London and Essex, the Trust will obviously have an important role to
play in delivering the London 2012 Olympic Legacy. And that legacy has to be
inclusive of all of the communities in the locality. Speaking of which, I
was sitting in the Sir Trevor Brooking Stand on Saturday and it was great to
see such diversity amongst the youngsters and adults sitting in that part of
the ground. Talking to some of them, at half-time, it appears that the
club/WHUCST have been reaching out to difference communities to encourage
them to attend matches and connect with the club via community programmes.
To me, that is excellent and real progress in making West Ham inclusive for
all sections of our community; as well as making perfect business sense in
terms extending the fan base and attracting hitherto untapped support.

All in all, with all this community focus, PL safety and the excellent plans
to adapt the Olympic Stadium I am feeling very positive about all thing
claret and blue at the moment. Everything is undoubtedly moving in a
positive direction. I know not all supporters share my view on the playing
style, but hopefully this summer will see us adding the additional quality
to the squad that will enable us to adopt a more pacy, expansive style
(especially away from home) in 2013-14, thereby addressing some genuine
concerns amongst sections of our fan base.

SJ. Chandos.

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