West Ham 3 Wigan 1
Grant rang the changes for this game. Cole was dropped to the bench and Parker, Behrami, Tomkins, Stanislas and Barrera all started. Hines was also named on the bench.
A scrappy first-half looked for a long time that it might stretch to half-time without any highlights. However in the 34th minute Piquionne headed down a cross from deep and Behrami ran on to score from 6 yards.
Having scored from their first real effort on goal West Ham then managed to carve out a few more chances. In the 38th minute Stanislas forced a good save from Al Habsi with a shot from the edge of the area. From the corner Al Habsi did well again to save a powerful header from Piquionne from 5 yards.
In the 39th minute, from another corner, Upson fired wide from 5 yards. Wigan's only real effort in the half was a Cleverley shot in the 9th minute which was saved by Green.
Four minutes into the second half and Piquionne missed a golden opportunity to extend West Ham's lead. From 8 yards, with only the keeper to beat, Piquionne fired the ball wide right of the goal. A minute after that and Jacobsen was replaced by Reid, with what might be a hamstring injury.
In the 56th minute Obinna got West Ham's second firing low from wide left in the area into the bottom right corner of the net. In the 63rd minute Upson bottled a challenge on Cleverly allowing the Wigan player a clear run at goal. Gabbidon hacked Cleverly down giving a penalty to Wigan. Green then saved Boselli's penalty diving to his left.
In the 75th minute Parker won the ball in midfield and drove forward. He played a one-two with Obinna and got West Ham's winner from 6 yards. In the 86th minute Wigan got a goal back to ensure that West Ham weren't entirely comfortable going into the last few minutes. Cleverly beat Green from just inside the penalty area.
In the last few minutes of the game Gohouri scored from a corner. The goal was disallowed for offside but Kovac was clearly playing him onside.
So a West Ham team that looked a bit more threatening in front of goal managed to get a second win of the season. Come on you Irons!
posted by Keir Clarke @ 3:00 PM
6 comments
6 Comments:
父父I父父R父父O父父N父父S父父 Could have done without the Wolves turnaround! Piqionne missed another sitter! Their penalty miss saved us! All in all a good result, things could have gone better but on the up! Still lots of work to be done! 父父I父父R父父O父父N父父S父父
Big improvement in terms of desire and willingness to shut down the opposition. something to build on
I'm a very happy hammer today :)
Every player played well. I've criticised Obinna for his shooting and passing accuracy, but he scored one and made one today, he can't do much more than that.
Behrami was my man of the match today. He worked hard, put tackles in and got forward for his goal.
Great to see Junior in the team, especially instead of Boa. His corners were good, much needed in Noble's absence, he got a shot on target and showed some pace and desire.
I will tone down my criticism of Grant a bit. He stopped trying to play 4-3-3 with two good central midfield players plus Boa. He did not try to play three strikers (4-3-3 should be one centre forward with an inside left and right, Dyer/Collison type players), meaning that Piquionne was up front instead of wide right.
COYI !
I agree with you paul, stanislas was worth 10 LBM's! Let's hope he can stay fit!
Happy Hammer
What a transformation this has to be way forward, the whole team looked like they wanted the ball, give Stanislas a decent run he deserves it on this performance, LBM, cole and kovac pack your bags your time is up you have had your chance and blew it.
Agree Behrami played very well but parker again pulled the strings Fantastic.
lets push on from here.
bob the hammer
my only criticism of Stanislas was that he holds on to the ball too long at times and tried to do too much! But that shows real confidence in his own ability! Not scared to have a go too! Has got pace also, everything LBM lacks! COME ON YOU FECKING IRONSAAAA!
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