West Ham 2 Wolves 0
For the first half hour of this game both sides seemed intent on demonstrating why they are occupying the bottom spots in the league, with some pretty awful football from both teams.
In the 30th minute however Scott Parker played a lovely ball in behind the defence for Cole but, with only the goalkeeper to beat, Cole screwed his shot just wide of the left hand post from 10 yards. Although Cole should have at least hit the target this sight on goal did seem to spur West Ham into action.
Although West Ham dominated the final quarter of an hour of the half they only really managed one more clear opportunity. In the 41st minute Sears fired in a low shot from 8 yards only to see his effort cleared off the line.
At the other end Wolves looked dangerous from corners. Outside of set pieces however they only managed one weak shot on goal when Ward shot from 20 yards in the 14th minute. But his effort was straight at Green in goal.
For the first five minutes of the second half Wolves bombarded the West Ham goal. Ebanks-Blake had two shots on goal blocked by Upson and Green was forced into two saves from close range headers (one by Cole I think).
After holding out Wolves' initial flurry West Ham were then handed an own goal. A cross from Piquionne left Cole with an open goal from 8 yards. Cole however completely missed the ball but Zubar decided to save Cole's blushes by putting the ball into the back of his own net.
Wolves then had enough possession to make for some nervous moments for West Ham. Their best chance fell to Ebanks-Blake in the 77th minute but his header from 7 yards cannoned back off the crossbar.
In the 79th minute Sears made the result safe by shooting home Ben-Haim's cross from 10 yards.
So West Ham jump 5 places in the league and are out of the bottom three (at least temporarily). Come on you Irons!
posted by Keir Clarke @ 3:47 PM
6 comments
6 Comments:
Happy New Year!
Now let's get on with it!
Great result but Cole should be shot for that miss!!!
I think if someone had said before xmas would you like 7 points out of 9 all of us would have said yes please.
Not the best performance but the result was what matters on this occasion.
why Kovac was playing instead of Noble is a mystery to me, at least LBM was where he should be!!
keep it up guys
COYI!!!!!
Bob The Hammer
Agree ,7 from 9 is what counts even if aspects of recent performances still don#t inspire confidence. The sooner Noble can be fit to play 90 minutes the better ,as Kovac cannot pass the ball well enuf
I thought we dominated the game today, aside from a couple of scary moments. We passed and moved much better than usual, some of the best football we've played all season. I know it was only against Wolves but it's wins against teams like that that will keep us up.
I completely agreed with the team selection. Perhaps Hines should should playing up front with Cole or Piquionne, but it's a close call. Obinna is lively but we don't see enough end product and he gives the ball away too much.
I really like Stanislas and Sears playing wide behind Cole and Piquionne. They (Stanislas and Sears) bring pace, width and hunger - not things we're blessed with in our squad.
Great to see the full-backs joining the attack. We saw some great bits of skill from Gabbion and a very good cross from Ben Haim for Sears' goal.
Noble is coming back from injury, pressing him in to action too early won't do him or the team any favours. Stanislas has been criticised (particularly on WHTiD). Bear in mind he took a whack early on and was eventually subbed, and came off limping. Before that he caused problems for Wolves.
All in all a very good team performance, and I'm particularly pleased to see Sears do well after all the unjustified criticism.
COYI !
I bet Carlton is secretly hating that og! He was piss poor again! And if truth be told, we were so so so so so so so so so so so so lucky to win that game! Ebanks blake should be shot for his miss too!
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