West Ham 1 Aston Villa 2
The first half started so well for West Ham. In the second minute Villa failed to effectively clear a West Ham corner. The ball was knocked back to Keane to turn and score from 7 yards. However, in the 14th minute Da Costa was forced off and, with no Tomkins on the bench, West Ham were forced to bring on Gabbidon.
In the 24th minute Villa thought they had grabbed an equaliser when Bent scored with his head from 6 yards. The ref however decided Bent had used his arms to climb above Jacobsen. West Ham were not so lucky in the 36th minute when Noble decided to try and dribble out of the penalty area rather than hoof the ball clear. Noble was robbed by Heskey, Young crossed to Bent and Bent headed in from 8 yards.
West Ham's luck was no better at the other end of the pitch. In the 16th minute Cole was clean through on goal and Dunne clearly fouled the striker just outside the area. Instead of giving the foul and sending Dunne off Halsey allowed play to continue. In the 40th minute a Villa defender passed back to Friedel from just five yards out. West Ham should have been given a freekick but again Halsey pretended that he was blind.
The only real surprise in the second half was that it took Villa until injury time to get their winner. From the restart West Ham were on the back foot. In the first 3 minutes of the second half Green was forced to save from Bent and Young.
Throughout the half Villa dominated possession and territory. Young in particular had a number of opportunities on goal. Ironically in the last ten minutes of the game West Ham actually managed a couple of chances. Hitzlsperger shot wide from 25 yards, Cole missed just wide from 8 yards and Ba shot a freekick under the wall but straight at Friedel.
Then in the 91st minute Downing shot from wide right, Green saved but the ball was knocked back into the box and Agbonlahor headed in from close range.
I have to say again West Ham look like a side destined for relegation. It isn't just the tactical ineffectiveness of the team and the lack of quality, at the moment this looks like a side with no fight and no desire to win.
posted by Keir Clarke @ 3:39 PM
9 comments
9 Comments:
Once again a performance totally devoid of passion or direction! We are quite probably the worst team in the division by a country mile!!
We have to get something against city and chelsea to stand any chance of staying up oh and parker fit.
Another match where Grant did not do us any favors. Why take Obinna off so early if he was not injured? And if you take him off ,why bring Hines on as oppsoed to Ba?
And why are we incapable of putting 11 men behind the ball in stoppage time to hang on to the point? Is it rocket science? No.
And why is it that our players insist on trying to play the ball out of our own area,instead of just hoofing it to safety? How can Noble not know better at this point in his career?
Keane put himself aboout and worked extremely hard ,as did Gabbidon. But the same cannot be said of most of the other players.
All is not totally lost as the final 3 fixtures are all winnable,but agree that we need to get something from city and chelsea to have any real shot. Big ask,but not impossible.
hello championship to be honest dont think were good enough for that league
That last paragraph is spot on, went to the game today and the players don't look up for the fight . So disappointed
Pityful 2nd half, but that seems to be our whole season. We played like relegation fodder, heavy footed and short of idea's or want to take responsibility. Keane ended up as a fullback because nothing was happening AT ALL in the 2nd half for us. Missed Parker but cant expect his prescent to represent the entire team (it sadly is).
Tough next 2 games, which neither look possible from recent performance. We will have to hope the others around us dont pick up points..
Today was painfull to watch..
cole i thought performed well and tried hard, and was unlucky not to get aa goal, fouled on the ball that the ref didnt give then had a tough chance for that lob, apart from him green and keane, personally think we were distinctly average.
I cant understand the substitution of obinha for hines, obinha wasnt playing badly, and personally, thought he was the better of the midfielders, i wouldve taken off o'neil and replaced with ba. played a 4 3 1 2 with keane playing behind the front 2 of ba and cole.
in all we are down, there is no way we are getting 9 points. chelsea, man city and sunderland are all very tough games that we will be very lucky to even get 3 points from the 3 games.
and based on how we have played against other relegation threaten teams, i cant see us getting much from blackburn or wigan if we play how we have lately.....
sad times for west ham to be honest.
At least Sheffield United are down as well. I could see that being a bad fixture for some reason ;-)
I said it months ago that we were going down we are just not good enough, no fight! no passion! and a manager who has not got a bleedin clue.
9 points your having a laugh!!!!!!
Bob The Hammer
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