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The Last Time: Premier League Relegation Battle

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Welcome to the new section of Forever West Ham, The Last Time, were I recall the last time West Ham played their next opponents. On Boxing Day we host Birmingham City, so lets cast our minds back to February 6th 2011 for a relegation Premier League clash.

It was the 56th birthday of former manager Avram Grant, who celebrated by doing what he does best, losing. West Ham undoubtedly had the better of the game, but lack the threat in front of goal. In a game of little incident during the first half West Ham had a shout for a penalty after Lars Jacobsen’s shot hit the arm of Liam Ridgewell, but nothing was given and the sides went into the break level at 0-0. The second half however, was all West Ham with Robbie Keane and Victor Obinna having chances to put the home side ahead, but against the run of play, Birmingham took the lead. Mark Noble gave away a silly free kick on current West Ham player David Bentley, allowing Sebastian Larrson to send a beautiful free kick that Zigic heads home to put the away side a goal up. Demba Ba was brought on for his debut but neither him nor Carlton Cole could find a way past the Birmingham defence in a performance that summed up West Ham’s miserable season. The defeat left West Ham bottom of the table and made safety that little bit harder.

Starting line-ups:

West Ham: Green, Jacobsen, Reid, Tomkins, Bridge, O’Neil,

Parker, Noble, Obinna, Piquionne, Keane.

Subs: Boffin, Cole, Kovac, Upson, Sears, Ba, da Costa.

Birmingham: Foster, Carr, Johnson, Jiranek, Ridgewell, Bentley,

Ferguson, Gardner, Bowyer, Jerome, Zigic.

Subs: Doyle, Murphy, Larsson, Phillips, Fahey, Beausejour, Davies.

Stats

Possesion: West Ham 55%-45% Birmingham City

Shots: West Ham 18-8 Birmingham City

Yellow Cards: West Ham 4-0 Birmingham City

Red Cards: West Ham 0-0 Birmingham City

Fouls: West Ham 18-13 Birmingham City

Do you have any memories of this game? Were you there? Tell us in the comments below!

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