Aston Villa 0 West Ham 0
West Ham started the game with five in midfield and with Nouble up front on his own. Initially the tactic worked well in stifling Villa's play and West Ham looked like they could create something on the break.
In the fifth minute Nouble received the ball in West Ham's half and ran half the length of the pitch, beat Dunne on the edge of the box and just fired over. In the 10th minute Parker shot well wide from 25 yrds.
However after about 20 minutes Villa began to dominate possession, without creating much in the way of scoring chances. Their best effort came from Agbonlahor in the 26th minute, who did well to turn and shoot ten yards out. Green however made a good save to keep the score goalless.
West Ham's only other effort of the half was a Behrami shot that flew well over from 20 yrds.
For the first fifteen minutes of the second half it was all Aston Villa. Then in the 60th minute when Parker was forced off to be replaced by Diamanti and then Kovac, on a yellow card and a warning, was replaced by Stanislas it looked like it should be easy for Villa to go on and win the game.
However the West Ham replacements actually seemed to swing the game West Ham's way and suddenly they looked more of a threat going forward. In the 69th minute Diamanti shot well wide from 30 yards. In the 70th minute Stanislas fired a shot in from 7 yrds to the right of the goal and Collins deflected the ball over the bar.
In the 73rd minute Stanislas fired in a shot from 20 yrds, which was deflected wide. In the 80th minute Noble volleyed well wide from 20 yards.
In the 92nd minute when it looked like West Ham had done enough to earn a draw Agbonlahor had a great chance to win the game for Villa. He turned and beat Upson and only had Green to beat but Green did superbly to win the ball at the striker's feet.
In the end, with a depleted team, this was a great point won for West Ham. Nouble, in only his second real game, improved greatly on his debut performance. He is already beginning to look like a real prospect.
posted by Keir Clarke @ 2:19 PM
5 comments
5 Comments:
Thing is I fear for our youngsters. IF and WHEN we get new owners and they pump a little cash in the team where would that leave Cole, Stanislas, Hines and Nouble?
That front line will be the first sorted and at least two of the above mentioned will be surplus to requirements in a year.
OH and is it still necessary to moderate me?
Am i the only one getting fed up of hearing how we are injury raveaged. Apart from Cole we had a full team out against the Villa. Spector in for Ilunga was a gimme anyway as ilunga as been poo this season. The rest of the team are now all fist teamers. Once we went to a more attacking formation we actually looked more of a threat. If villa had scored at any point in this game then we would have lost, like we did at tottscum. It's zola's negitive tactics that see us where we are, nothing else.
Fair point Ian but remember Noble and Parker were definately carrying injuries and by the way they played both Collison and Behrami were not 100% either. Add in Cole and that's half a team. It's really an injury ravaged small squad what is really the problem as there is no depth of experience to call on for hard away games, as GZ said "this excellent team needs a bit of help" so that the likes of Parker don't have to play crocked
i think spector may be the best back on the team, he made one mistake i think it was against man city earlier this year and everyone wrote him off as a second string back, but whenever he's plays hes always strong and rarely makes a mistake on whatever side he on and offers a decent amount of offense up the wing. he's been a steady starter on the US team for the past year or so and really should be starting every game here.
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