Daily WHUFC News - 31st October 2017

Hammer pays tribute to fellow fan who saved his Dad's life
WHUFC.com

A West Ham United fan has paid tribute to the fellow supporter who saved his
73-year-old father's life at Wembley Stadium. Ian Perry and son Wayne were
queuing outside turnstile entrance C minutes before kick-off in the Carabao
Cup tie between their beloved West Ham and Tottenham Hotspur, when Ian
collapsed.
Thankfully, among the other members of the Claret and Blue Army waiting to
enter the stadium was fellow Season Ticket Holder Ian Pearse, who
immediately recognised that his fellow fan had suffered a cardiac arrest and
began administering cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). West Ham supporters
created space for Pearse to work, while the emergency services were called
and arrived within minutes. Police medics then delivered a dose of electric
current to Perry's heart and, having re-established his regular heartbeat,
he was taken to Wembley's in-stadium medical centre. With the experts
looking after Ian, Pearse and his son Luke went into the stadium to watch
the match. When his father had stabilised, Wayne took to social media in a
bid to find the man who had saved his Dad's life.
"We were waiting to get into the ground when Dad collapsed," Wayne
confirmed. "There were a lot of people around and it all got a bit chaotic,
but then a gentleman approached my friend Eddie and said he knew what to do.
He ripped open Dad's shirt and started doing CPR on his chest. "Without
Ian's intervention, the doctor said my Dad would not have lived. This is
about something more important than football, and that's saving lives. After
watching Ian and the medics bring my Dad back, I would urge everyone to get
training to do CPR, because it can be a matter of life or death. "The
support we have received on social media, from the fan sites and the Club
themselves have been awesome. This just shows what a special group of
supporters West Ham fans are."

After spending a few days in the Harefield Hospital in nearby Uxbridge, the
grateful grandfather was allowed to return to his home in the Essex village
of Rayne.
"Dad was taken to hospital and underwent surgery and had two stents put in
his heart, so he's probably in better shape now than he was before he fell
ill," Wayne added. "Everyone was brilliant - the fans, the medical staff at
Wembley and Ian, of course. "He came home on Saturday afternoon and we had a
birthday party for my daughter, so the whole family were here. We kept tabs
on the Crystal Palace game and he was spitting feathers when they equalised.
When he's moaning about the football, we know he's definitely on the way
back to being in good health!"
For Pearse, he was happy to put the CPR training he was given nearly three
decades away into practice. "My son spotted Ian collapse and my training
just kicked in. I made my way through the crowd and told them I knew what to
do and they allowed me to start doing cardiac massage, with the aim of
maintaining circulation of oxygen around his body. "I shouted and asked a
policeman to get a defibrillator and this arrived within a few minutes with
the police medics, who then took over working on Ian. "I was delighted to be
contacted by Wayne and to learn that he is now home and on the mend. We are
going to meet up at a West Ham match in the future, too. "I always used to
joke that I'd done a CPR course over 25 years ago and never needed to use
it, but I won't be able to say that any longer!"

Fans interested in taking a CPR/Basic Life Support course should contact the
London Ambulance Service.

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Ogbonna - 'I can't believe we got just one point'
WHUFC.com

Angelo Ogbonna has admitted his disbelief that West Ham United left Selhurst
Park with just one point after a 2-2 draw with Crystal Palace. Goals from
Chicharito and Andre Ayew had put Slaven Bilic's side in control at
half-time against Palace on Saturday but a 97th minute finish by WIlfried
Zaha meant the game ended in a tie, after Luka Milivojevic scored from the
penalty spot early in the second half. The result leaves West Ham waiting
for their first league away win of season but Ogbonna is still shocked the
Irons did not claim it on Saturday. And the defender believes vital lessons
must be learned from the result. The Italian said: "I cannot believe that we
got just one point. It should be three but you know the game. We are focused
for the next game. "It's a lesson. It's a big lesson for us. We have to have
to keep the ball."

Ogbonna also revealed that the nature of Saturday's result and the context
of the draw meant the squad felt like they had suffered a loss against
Palace. "It's a defeat for us," Ogbonna added: "It's a defeat because we
played well and we stayed in the game until the last minute. Everybody saw
then what happened."
The 29-year-old nonetheless insists that the side are still completely
committed to playing at their very best and must do so for themselves, for
manager Bilic, and for the everybody else associated with the team. "In the
game anything can happen so we have to play not just for the manager but for
ourselves. For our Club and for everybody."

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Reece Oxford makes Borussia Monchengladbach debut
WHUFC.com

Reece Oxford made his Borussia Monchengladbach debut on Saturday as the
German outfit beat Hoffenheim 3-1 in the Bundesliga. The West Ham United
centre-back, who joined Die Fohlen on loan during the summer, replaced Lars
Stindl in the final few minutes to help his team hold onto the victory which
saw them move above their opponents in the league table.
Hoffenheim took the lead after 25 minutes when midfielder Kerem Demirbay
volleyed in from range. In the second period, however, Dieter Hecking's team
came out fighting and equalised just after the hour mark when Thorgan Hazard
- brother of Chelsea's Eden - squeezed in from a tight angle after Vincenzo
Grifo had centred. Monchengladbach were not satisfied with the point,
though, and went in search of the winner. It came with eleven minutes left
to play, Grifo again the man with the assist as Matthias Ginter finished.
Three minutes later, the visitors put the result beyond any doubt, as Jannik
Vestergaard scored from close range to make it 3-1. Oxford was introduced
with a minute of normal time left to play, helping his side hold onto the
points at Rhein Neckar Arena. Though the appearance was Oxford's first in a
competitive fixture, the defender did play a number of times for the side
during pre-season, scoring in a 2-1 win against Spanish side Malaga. The
18-year-old has previously been an unused substitute in every other
Bundesliga fixture this campaign.

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Noble - I thought we had done enough to beat Palace
WHUFC.com

Mark Noble thought West Ham's resilience in the face of Crystal Palace
pressure was going to carry them over the line to three precious points at
Selhurst Park on Saturday. The Hammers led 2-0 at the break, only for the
Eagles to come roaring back in the second period, scoring an early penalty
and then remaining on the front foot for the rest of the game. Joe Hart
saved brilliantly from Wilfried Zaha and Yohan Cabaye, and when ex-Hammer
James Tomkins hit the bar in stoppage time, it looked as if Palace's chance
had passed. West Ham skipper Noble was convinced his team was going to hold
on, only for Zaha to snatch a couple of points away from them with the last
kick of the game, meaning the No16 travelled back over the Thames with a
feeling of frustration. "I didn't think the game was over at half-time," he
explained. "Obviously we played Spurs on Wednesday and we were 2-0 down at
half-time in that game. The game is never over, but we gave them two goals
really. "We scored two great goals, two goals away from home and we dug in.
I thought the defenders played tremendously well, but as I have said many,
many times, you get punished if you make mistakes in this league and that's
what we did. "We've got to learn how to see games out, it's as simple as
that. As you can tell I'm really disappointed because I thought we did
enough to win the game. They had a lot of pressure in the second half, but
you're going to get that."

Noble returned to the starting XI for the trips to Spurs and Palace this
week and he was pleased to play his part in those performances. He added:
"We've got a really big squad - we had Andy Carroll, Marko Arnautovic,
Michail Antonio and Arthur Masuaku sitting on our bench at Palace. You're
not going to play every week, we know that, and normally if you win every
week it's an easier job for the manager, but if you're not he has to make
some changes and that's what he's done.
"I did say that it's a team game, not an individual game, and the fightback
against Spurs was fantastic. "The games don't get any easier, we have
Liverpool at home and after not playing well enough in our last home game we
have to be better on Saturday."

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Hammers hoping to book place in Checkatrade Trophy knockout rounds
WHUFC.com

West Ham United will be hoping to book their place in the second round of
the Checkatrade Trophy when they take on Bristol Rovers on Tuesday night.
The Hammers, an U21 side in the competition though five overage players are
permitted, go into the game with three points from three on the Southern
Group C table following their win over Swindon Town in the competition in
August. And should Terry Westley's youngsters secure another win at the
Memorial Ground, they could already have their spot in the second round with
one match to spare should the Robins draw with Wycombe Wanderers. If there
is a winner in the other tie on the same evening, the east Londoners would
still look a good bet to progress providing they gain three points against
the Pirates. Goalkeeper Nathan Trott, who was part of the Hammers team which
beat Swindon 3-2 earlier this campaign, is confident his team can qualify
for the next round. He said: "We have a really strong squad this season, and
when everyone is fit, it's a really great team. All eleven players on the
pitch are really talented and so are the guys on the bench who come on and
help us out. "I think we can win anything this season. Our objectives at
the start of the season were a top six finish but how well we are doing in
the league, we can look even better than that. "Our form shows how much we
are working at the moment and how high the concentration levels have been
all season. If we continue like that we will keep getting good results like
this."

Last season, Westley's team exited the competition after the group stages
after tough defeats against Coventry City and Wycombe before a penalty
shootout victory over Northampton. Earlier this campaign, the Academy opted
to field a strong, experienced side against Swindon and it paid off, as the
exciting side beat their League Two opponents. Tuesday's challenge comes in
the form of a League One side, however after Saturday's Premier League 2
victory over Manchester City, Trott believes the whole squad is extremely
high on confidence. "The whole team were great and it was a good performance
against City," the keeper continued. "We did well and I was also happy with
my own performance. "I just want to continue with this form and help out the
whole team and get more positive results like this."

West Ham supporters wishing to support the side at the Memorial Ground will
be able to purchase tickets on the day of the game from Bristol Rovers'
matchday ticket office.

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Crystal Palace 2-2 West Ham (And Other Ramblings)
KUMB.com
Filed: Monday, 30th October 2017
By: HeadHammerShark

"Now I've swung back down again, it's worse than it was before If I hadn't
seen such riches, I could live with being poor" - James, "Sit Down"

So in a week where we learned exactly how long it takes to rig a league cup
quarter final draw (it's two hours) we learned how long we are allowed to be
happy. It's two days. Two bloody days of savouring that win at Wembley and
then we're back on the rollercoaster once again. Even Pontius Pilate got
three days of thinking he'd sorted out his Jesus problem before reality
started to bite.

The worst thing is that viewed in isolation, it isn't that terrible or
surprising that we can't beat the bottom team in the league. Over the last
two years we were the only team around who struggled to beat Sunderland and
if it wasn't for nine dropped points against relegated teams, we would have
finished level on points with runners up Arsenal in 2015/16.

If, if, if - the clarion call of the desperate and the dreamers, but still.
Shit.

This. The whole article basically boils down to this.


One thing that did hit me as I watched this game, is how difficult it really
is to get a handle on West Ham. We so rarely play in the same formation, or
with the same tactical approach or even with the same level of efficiency,
that opinion tends to swing wildly from game to game. And so far, every game
has come with a caveat: injuries, sendings off, the desperate need to just
get a win so we just take what points we can get and then worry about the
performance later.

Someone - and I apologise to whomever it was because I can't remember who
posted it and can't find it again now - appeared in my Twitter feed after
this game making the point that we haven't played well yet this season. My
immediate thought was that this was ludicrously harsh, but if you take that
to mean a complete ninety minute performance then that's probably true. Even
the Miracle of Wembley required a disaster in the first half, in order for
the whole thing to be miraculous.

So I thought I'd list out our league performances so far and see if it's
really true that each game has had a sizeable caveat attached to it, and
whether any of them can really be said to be good, front to back, 90 minute
displays:

Opposition/Result/Caveat

Man Utd (0-4): They'll beat everyone, loads of injuries
Southampton (2-3): Ten men, played well second half, ref
Newcastle (0-3): Loads of injuries, everything will be better at home
Huddersfield 2-0: All that matters is the result, it's hard at home
West Brom (0-0): Nobody plays well against West Brom
Spurs (2-3): Good start, we played Andy Carroll
Swansea (1-0): All that matters is the result
Burnley (1-1): Ten men, did you see that one move in the 2nd half?
Brighton (0-3): Erm, we didn't play Andy Carroll
Palace (2-2): Our players have no brains. None of them.

OK, so my immediate thought is that the Burnley game was probably our best
performance of the season and it involved seventy minutes with ten men, an
assist from our goalkeeper and featured another late equaliser. Overall I
think we played well, but draws against Burnley do not contented supporters
make, especially when they get followed up with 3-0 defeats at home to
Brighton.

Our two victories were both fairly dire, albeit we were the better team on
both occasion. We're just so inconsistent from game to game, from half to
half and even from one passage of play to another, that any kind of
objective assessment feels impossible. But what fans really want is a
complete display from start to finish, with all areas of the team
functioning and a resounding victory, because that allows us to stop
thinking of sustained competence as being a hypothetical concept.

***

Take this game for instance. How can you moan about a team being two nil up
at half time, with two superbly engineered and wonderfully taken goals?
Well, I suppose the reality is that at the interval everything did seem to
going swimmingly, even if we did have to rely upon an absolutely amazing
double save from Joe Hart to keep us in front at 1-0. So what though, that's
what he's there for, after all.

But then the came the worst second half defensive performance since John
Parker left Ford's Theatre, Washington DC, 1865 during the intermission of
"Our American Cousin" to go and have a drink at a saloon next door. While he
was getting smashed, John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln and
Parker struggled to get much more work in the bodyguard field, although he
did later turn out a couple of times at right back for West Ham.

That's it Michail, into the corner

At one point in the first half of this game I was beginning to wonder if it
was possible to write an article about a match where nothing happened. Even
Sartre would have found this all a bit challenging to describe, as two very
poor teams engaged in a battle to see who could do least with most.

And then the game sprang into life. Wilfried Zaha broke into the box and
went down in a tangle with Jose Fonte. I thought it looked a bit innocuous,
but would have probably wanted it given at the other end. As it was, Bobby
Madley waved it away and we then swept upfield with a glorious move that
culminated in Chicharito slotting home his fourth of the season. The goal
was fairly reminiscent of Lanzini's winner in the corresponding fixture last
year, as Cresswell served it up on a plate and the Mexican cleverly flicked
it in with the outside of his boot.

Prominent in the build up to that goal was Andre Ayew, playing just off the
striker and getting on the ball very nicely, and he was at it again a few
minutes later. This time he latched on to a loose ball courtesy of some good
pressing by Fernandes, and drove forward, turned Scott Dann so many times he
could have opened a bottle of Merlot with him, and then smashed it in to the
top corner from outside the box. He probably should have slipped in
Fernandes outside him, but when you're having the kind of week he is, you
can't blame him for taking it on.

As it is, all West Ham players should probably be shooting from everywhere
at Selhurst Park as we only ever seem to score screamers against them.

So a two-nil lead at half time seemed fairly sustainable against a team who
had scored twice all season, but as this shot map from Caley Graphics shows,
you can make an argument that we were fortunate to get anything at all such
was the dominance of the home team. But football games aren't played on
spreadsheets and when you get to the 97th minute of a game with the lead
then you expect to leave with three points. This one was a gut wrencher.

***

When whoever it is that assembles the playing staff at West Ham decided to
put together the oldest, slowest backline in the league I'm fairly sure that
they weren't envisioning games like today. We are now ten games into the
season and have the third worst goal difference in the league, Zabaleta has
been booked five times, we have been beaten 3-0 by two promoted teams and
have conceded four penalties.

Today it was Angelo Ogbonna who decided to forget everything he had learned
playing for Juventus and Italy, and brainlessly nudged over Andros Townsend
right at the start of the second half. It was soft as ice cream in a sauna
and wouldn't have been a penalty in 1985, but as far as arguments go that's
not actually a very good one. The penalty went in and suddenly we lost any
momentum rolling over from Spurs and instead found ourselves penned back as
the home team bombed forward.

Moments after that goal, Yohan Cabaye hit the post and we were wobbling
mightily. It was good timing then, for Joe Hart to start illustrating quite
why we'd gone out and paid so much money to get him when Adrian is a
perfectly capable Premier League keeper. Wave after wave of home attacks
were repelled with a combination of last ditch blocks and brilliant Hart
saves.

Among a number of fine stops, he kept out a Cabaye free kick that looked
destined for the top corner and somehow tipped a James Tomkins header on to
the bar. In truth, much of the Palace threat came from set pieces as they
looked for all the world like West Ham 2014/15 under Sam Allardyce,
featuring long deep crosses to Tomkins that were then kept alive in the box
for onrushing attackers. It took a decent amount of World War One style
Tommies in the trenches defending to keep them out, which was fitting as we
were wearing our new third kit which is apparently a homage to our first
ever strip in 1900.

Joe Hart, ladies and gentleman

So Hart probably deserved better than to be beaten by Zaha's 97th minute
equaliser, but in reality we couldn't complain. Had we not wasted so much
time throughout the second half we wouldn't have been on the pitch to have
given up the goal. As it was, Lanzini and Antonio took a free kick in the
87th minute and decided to keep it in the corner. This was particularly
ironic as Palace would score their second a whole ten minutes later, but
perhaps more crucially still - neither one of them took it in the fucking
corner.

***

Ah yes, taking the ball into the corner to protect a one goal lead. It's
boring and negative when it's done against you, and the height of
professional game management when your team does it. And now this morning,
Antonio has been roundly criticised for failing to do exactly that in the
minute before the goal.

The problem I have with this is that had Antonio ignored the three on one
situation in the Palace box, where Ayew, Lanzini and Chicharito were waiting
for any kind of decent cross, and gone over to the corner flag it's still
possible that the same thing could have happened. He could still easily have
lost the ball, and Palace could have broken away and scored and everybody
would have lost their shit that he was being so negative and spurned a gold
plated opportunity to seal the win.

Therefore, my issue with Antonio doing what he did isn't that he did it, but
more that he did it so badly. The worst part of it all is that any half
decent ball would surely have resulted in a goal, which is of course the
absolute best way to kill off a game. As it was, Dann chested the laziest
pass of all time back to Speroni, and Palace worked it out to Zaha who did a
bizarre loop with the ball before driving the winner through a crowd of legs
and thousands of West Ham fans muttered "Of course he fucking did" to
whomever they were with at the time, before crying like we were watching a
walrus trying to find a bit of ice left at the North Pole to park her kid
on.

That said, we had so many opportunities to launch late breakaway counters
and we seemed clueless as to how to do it. I haven't seen a group of people
so unsure of how to attack since the villagers in The Magnificent Seven.

As such, I have no issue with Antonio doing what he did - he should have
just done it better. And maybe the players in the box could have actually
chased back, but then I guess when we all moan that the team doesn't look
remotely fit enough, we can't really complain when they can't physically
match other teams in the late stages of games.

And so the rollercoaster surges on.

***

What is interesting after games like this is how we all fall very easily
into the trap of telling each other how obvious and predictable it was that
this would happen. Truthfully that's not really very fair as we are no worse
than any other team when it comes to defending two goal leads. However, as a
club we are pretty bad for letting in late goals, and we also have
exceptional timing, meaning that we would of course throw away a two goal
lead just two days after skewering Spurs in the same way. It's more West Ham
than Bubbles, Bobby Moore and getting drawn away in the cups to Big Clubs
(T).

Under Bilic our record in this situation is actually pretty good:

2-0 Up: W11 D1 L1
2-0 Down: W1 D3 L21

So, with a two nil lead this is only the second time that we've failed to
win under Bilic. The other was when we were ahead against Watford at the
London Stadium and then Troy Deeney got upset about rabonas and everybody
forgot how to defend and instead just rode around on unicycles squirting
water in each others faces.

It would perhaps be better if you tried to ignore how often we have gone 2-0
down under Bilic unless you want to completely lose your mind.

***

And what of Bilic? What does this game tell us about him? We routinely lead
the league in defensive errors that lead to goals and that shows no sign of
abating. You can argue that he isn't responsible for experienced defenders
giving away needless penalties or you can say that when people keep
continually making mistakes in his teams that perhaps the structure in which
they are playing isn't conducive to error free football.

As it is, we don't really know anything today that we didn't already know
yesterday. He still seems cursed with bad luck, he still can't organise a
defence, and juggling all his attacking options around seems to befuddle
him. Here he pushed Kouyate back into a trio of centre backs and he did
pretty well, perhaps unsurprisingly given that the 3-4-3 came back into
fashion when Barcelona started dropping their central midfielders between
their centre backs and sending their full backs off like auxiliary wingers.
The problem is that without him in midfield we lacked the ability to carry
the ball or break up play, and even Manuel Lanzini looked peripheral as we
struggled to get him in possession.

We also scored with our only two shots on target which either shows a
pleasing level of efficiency or a desperate lack of creativity, depending on
your world view. While all of that was happening Obiang, Antonio, Carroll
and Arnautovic were on the bench and you couldn't help but return to that
question one more time - what the hell were we trying to achieve with our
summer transfer activity?

So Bilic will wander onwards, because when he was given two games to save
his job it didn't make any particular sense, but once you say that then you
probably can't fire him after a win and a draw even when the circumstances
of those results were so crazy.

It will surprise none of you to know that I don't think a great deal of our
Board and their management structure, but I have some sympathy over this
decision. How can you assess this? It's impossible to sift through all the
madness of those two matches and draw anything concrete from it. And
realistically, this constantly undulating graph of our performance that
reflects a Himalayan skyline is probably reflective of where we are as a
club. Everything is chaotic, there's loads of wild stuff happening behind
the scenes and in the end that was always going to bleed out on to the
pitch.

Changing the manager might help, purely because they might be able to
organise our defence to at least recognise each other occasionally, but I
don't think it would make too much difference. This is the problem when you
choose not to back a manager by giving him a new contract, but also choose
not to fire him. So Bilic exists in this strange footballing purgatory
because we all accept that you can't get anyone better in November,
especially when you're down with the dead men, but we all know he won't be
staying beyond July. In some respects it's probably a testimony to his man
management skills that the players pay any attention to him at all given the
circumstances, but even though that may be true, I really do wish he'd sort
out our back four.

So on we roll, back on the rollercoaster.

***

In a week where the growth of English youth football is on everyone's mind,
it's worth noting that England have won both the Under 17 and Under 20 World
Cups without any West Ham players. This has been a common theme this summer,
as most of the best kids seem to come from the same academies - Manchester
City, Chelsea and Arsenal are prominent - and it does lead me to wonder
quite what is happening with our scouting.

It's not to say we don't have kids at these tournaments as Dan Kemp and
Nathan Trott were squad players at their respective Toulon and European
Finals, while Domingos Quina also represented Portugal in the latter. But
what is striking is how so many of the kids that represent England at these
tournaments come from London and how we really seem to be struggling to
identify and attract those kids.

Quina was picked up from Chelsea and the likes of Toni Martinez and Martin
Samuelson were also transferred for decent sums. Not that this isn't a
reasonable way to acquire players but what I'm referring to is the older
method of picking up a boy at the age of 9 or 10 and bringing him through
your system, moulded as the kind of player you want. We've been struggling
with this for a while, and maybe Declan Rice and Reece Oxford will prove us
wrong but it's starting to concern me that London kids might now be
presented with three other better options for their footballing development
at Chelsea, Spurs and Arsenal.

A friend of mine took his very talented nine-year-old to West Ham recently
at the club's request, and when they arrived he was bunched in with a huge
number of other children and nobody took any notice of them. His main
observation after watching his son learn precisely nothing in an
hour's-worth of coaching, was that "they fail primarily as human beings".

One persons experience isn't indicative of anything, but at some point we
may want to ask why our youth policy isn't delivering players in the same
way as other teams. Declan Rice might very well be one such player but our
London rivals are currently producing Premier Leaguers at a rate of far
higher than once every five years, as we tend to do.

I don't know enough to comment fully on this, but I highlight it just to
make the point. More help from the Academy is needed.

Please note that the opinions expressed in this article are those of the
author and do not necessarily represent the views of, nor should be
attributed to, KUMB.com.

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Tottenham issue lifetime bans to urine-throwing fans
By Sky Sports News
Last Updated: 30/10/17 4:48pm
SSN

Tottenham have issued lifetime bans to two supporters involved in throwing
urine at West Ham fans during their Carabao Cup tie last Wednesday. A video
which circulated on social media after the match at Wembley showed one fan
urinating into a pint glass before the other fan threw its contents at the
travelling fans.
Tottenham told Sky Sports News they were investigating the footage and urged
fans who had information about "anything untoward" at the game to contact
either the club or the police. Spurs have since concluded their
investigation, having identified the two men and subsequently banned them
from attending their matches in the future. A club spokesman said: "This
kind of behaviour is not acceptable and we shall be issuing lifetime bans to
both individuals in the video." In the second clash of the season between
these two clubs, Mauricio Pochettino's side led 2-0, but Slaven Bilic's West
Ham managed to score three second-half goals - ensuring their place in the
quarter-final of the competition.

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SHAKY HAMMERS PUNISHED FOR OWN NEGATIVITY - SHAME THE SEASON CAN'T BE OVER
ALREADY
By HamburgHammer 30 Oct 2017 at 08:00
WTID

I am still fuming. And shocked. I feel angry and embarrassed. Sick and
tired. As a football fan sometimes you can see your team throwing a game
away, frightening early signs indicating where things are heading to with
alarming predetermination, you can clearly make out the jaws of victory,
beckoning in the distance, but you're also painfully aware of defeat
creeping ever closer to those jaws, ready to get snatched at the final
moment in place of the aforementioned victory, yet there is nothing you can
do, especially if you can only watch the events unfolding on a dodgy
internet stream from an armchair 500 miles away from London.

The Saturday for me personally was pretty much a footballing disaster, with
two disappointing draws in totally winnable games. First Cordi only drew 1:1
at FC Turkiye (wrong side of the river, shocking atmosphere plus a terrible
referee), conceding the softest of penalties (sound familiar ?) in a wet and
windy contest on a cabbage field disguised as a football pitch before
luckily scoring the equaliser five minutes from time. Turkiye are a shocking
football team matching the quality of their home pitch, still Concordia
failed to have a proper gameplan and also gave away the ball far too often -
the only good thing from that encounter was that I got home fairly quickly
after that shocker of a game, just in time to catch Ayew's screamer late in
the first half to give us a comfortable 2:0 lead. Or so I thought.

Surely this is it I said to myself, settling into my comfy armchair,
screwdriver in hand. This won't be yet another false dawn. We will score
another goal or two and that'll be it. Then my internet stream started to
play up. It crashed every two minutes or so, replayed the same passage of
play three times over and came alive again suddenly with a few minutes of
play lost in the abyss. Still I was able to witness Ogbonna conceding the
penalty early in the second half Just what the doctor ordered.NOT.
As a professional defender you simply can't challenge your opponent in your
penalty box like this - yes, it was a soft penalty, but there was definite
contact and if you give the other guy the opportunity to go down nine times
out of ten he will gladly oblige and the referee will blow the whistle,
given a chance, and I blame neither the Palace player nor the referee in
this instance.

That goal was the big game changer. It threw Palace a lifeline, it breathed
new life into a shellshocked home crowd and it made our team nervous for the
remainder of the second half. Still, this is what I just don't get: Why do
you allow the opposition to put yourself under the kosh like this ? It's
Palace after all, not Manchester City or Barcelona for crying out loud!

Let's then jump to roundabout the 80th minute - from then on we were
negative and unprofessional beyond belief. How can you begin passing
freekicks to the corner flag, trying to waste time rather than creating
another goalscoring opportunity to kill off the game for good ?

There were several instances where one of our guys was in a good position to
run at the defenders in the Palace box, take them on, make something happen.
Yet we tried to win the game by killing time. Again and again.
(Except once right at the end when Antonio didn't actually keep the ball in
the corner which gave Palace the chance to equalise.)

We actually killed our chances of winning by choosing that negative approach
coupled with bad decision making by the players. I felt embarrassed watching
us in the second half. Even if we were a better team at keeping the ball and
wasting some time (which we are not) I don't like to see that kind of
approach from my team.ever. It just feels wrong.

Same as diving, playacting or recklessly tackling an opposition player,
embracing the possibility of causing a fellow professional a bad injury in
the process.
It's plain wrong.

Best way to win in my book has always been playing positive football, trying
to score, thereby making it harder for the opposition to get back into the
game.

I really don't blame Palace here, they got a much deserved and hard fought
point. But who in Bobby Moore's name was responsible for that negativity
shown by us in the second half ? Virtually the ENTIRE second half.

Was it our manager who told the players to timewaste our way to victory ?
Was it the players who simply didn't trust their own ability to score
another goal or two against basement boys Palace who, let's be frank, aren't
exactly world beaters ?

Shooting ourselves in the foot like this again and again won't help our team
to gain some much needed confidence, it's always one step forward and two
steps back for us.

We never play a complete game, giving a professional performance from start
to finish, two halves of full effort, desire or swagger. Why is that ?
Just like at Burnley we threw away what would have been a very valuable away
win right at the end of the game. It's doing my nut in.

If we can't beat a team like Palace after carving out a 2:0 halftime lead
against them, what does that say about the character of our team ? It's nice
of course to beat Spurs in the fashion we did last Wednesday in the League
Cup. But it's not much good if you then follow it up with an utterly
unprofessional display in the second half like we delivered at Palace.Maybe
we should change our name from West Ham United to What If United.

There always is a catch or caveat when it comes to our club. Of course we
have seen all of this before and with all our practise we should be used by
now to the sheer stupidity and sloppiness of it all, but as a fan you never
get used to it, do you ? It still hurts like hell. It stings. And yes, it
also stinks.

Once again my screwdriver ended up getting chucked to the floor violently in
a fit of anger and disappointment. The season already feels lost to me.
Not in a sense that we will get relegated. We won't get relegated. But we
will keep hovering between 10th and 15th place in the table all season.
Throw in the football we're playing and it's not a combination you want to
fill a 60k stadium next season.

Unfortunately we still have plenty of games to play, but it's hard to see us
even winning two in a row this season. World class players in a world class
stadium, you're havin' a bubble mate! As mentioned in my column last week,
both club and team look rotten right now, things just don't appear to sit
right from top to bottom.

There were merely two things that gave me a genuine reason to smile at the
weekend, West Ham wise. One was our development squad beating their
Manchester City counterparts with a 2:1 scoreline (and Martinez scoring
again). The other was seeing Declan Rice come on as a substitute. I am very
impressed with the lad and hope he will get many more opportunities in this
nightmare of a season to gain more PL experience and subsequently grow in
stature. With Bilic unlikely to be a permanent feature for West Ham now,
players like Rice (or Martinez, Quina, Kemp, Burke, Cullen and Holland)
continue to give me a valid reason to cheer on the Hammers and hope for
better times for the boys in claret and blue.

Take note Messrs. Gold and Sullivan - just because you're decking out our
players in a Man City coloured shirt it doesn't mean that the players will
suddenly have the same skills and quality. It takes more than that. A lot
more.maybe more than you are capable or prepared to deliver. COYI!!!

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Slaven Bilic still on thin ice at West Ham - and now must deal with
defensive crisis ahead of visit by Liverpool
The Hammers boss's job is on tenterhooks with his side 16th in the Premier
League
The Mirror
Darren Lewis
22:30, 30 OCT 2017

Slaven Bilic remains on thin ice at West Ham after his players threw away
the chance to lift the pressure on him. Bilic is also facing a defensive
crisis for the visit of Liverpool on Saturday with a number of his defenders
unavailable. Pablo Zabaleta is suspended, James Collins still has an ankle
injury, Winston Reid missed the 2-2 draw with Crystal Palace because of a
calf strain and Jose Fonte picked up a foot injury in that match, leaving
the field in the second half. Bilic's side have still lost only two of their
last nine in all competitions. But with the club 16th in the table on just
nine points, the Croat desperately needs victories to ease the pressure.
His London Stadium bosses are known to have been dismayed at the way that
his team threw away a two-goal lead against struggling Palace. While the
focus has been on Michail Antonio's decision to give away the ball in the
final minutes, Angelo Ogbonna is also in the spotlight for his rash
challenge on Andros Townsend to concede a penalty at 2-0 up. Bilic held his
weekly debrief with West Ham's owners on Monday with his side's impressive
League Cup comeback at Tottenham last week extremely timely. It served as
evidence that the players - who themselves came from 2-0 down at half time -
remain committed to his cause. But the priority for club chiefs is to move
up the Premier League table quickly. After Saturday's Liverpool game, West
Ham go to Watford before a home game against Leicester.

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