25th August 2007.
West Ham are losing at home to Wigan Athletic to a single goal. Nine minutes from time and new signing Lee Bowyer scores the equaliser to the relief and obvious delight of the home support.
This is of course the same Lee Bowyer that had been charged with GBH with intent and affray seven years earlier. And of course the fella had history, having being convicted of affray four years earlier after an incident in a McDonalds restaurant where a staff member of Asian origin had been racially abused.
But at the moment that goal hit the back of the Wigan net this was forgotten as I and thirty odd thousand fellow Hammers celebrated. After all he was a West Ham player. One of us. A local lad, born & bred in Canning Town. Sure he he`d made some mistakes but we were could ignore this whilst he wore the claret and blue.
He was a wrong un but he was our wrong un.
Find us on Facebook for more Hammers news, competitions and polls http://www.facebook.com/pages/ForeverWestHamcom/200938616608282
Fast forward four years and my timeline, heavily populated with West Ham followers, is a collection of anti Squarez/ Liverpool tweets. In the main it appears that the Liverpool fans are taking the stance of their club and supporting their player.
And of course the usual collection of anti John Terry/ Chelsea messages. Ditto Chelsea clubs stance with their club captain.
Now this is not a piece to go over the rights and wrongs of either incident. I have an opinion on both as I`m sure you do. More a reminder that we all back our man however right and wrong they are. Its that siege mentality. Look after your own. And as football fans we will do it every time.
So the next time that we decide to post an abusive message of either of the aforementioned we might want to think about how we felt when one of our own were being abused. Who knows perhaps we`ll have some balanced opinions posted.
Then again perhaps not.
Need a New Years resolution? How about earning more money? Follow the link and sign up to get paid for reading about the Hammers http://bit.ly/ffc-foreverwestham
Looking for experience? Just want to be heard outside of the Boleyn? We are currently looking for writers, drop us an email at foreverwestham@snack-media.com for more details
Fair enough ‘he’ scored a goal for us but so did Paul Ince, Frank Lump of Lard and Defoe, it’s what hes done afterwards is the problem.
YOU NEVER celebrate against a team that you supposedly support, NEVER. Even Jermaine ‘rat boy’ Defoe didn’t celebrate after he scored against us and thats someone who just has respect for us even though we have no respect for him and too rightly so.
‘He’ was average for us and to be honest I would of rather played a youth player in his right midfield position but I always remember the time when he was playing for Birmingham and they beat us 1 nil by his goal at St Andrews, I couldn’t believe it, a former player going mad after he had scored against his ‘own’ club. Disgrace! And I can’t confirm it but I think he did the same when we played Ipswich this season. He will also be a tosser in my book.
I think the debate about whether we think our players (at any period in time) are good/try hard enough or not is not the issue being dicussed in this article. Neither is the issue of whether we should slag our own team off for its perceived failings.
I think Mr Evans is making a very level headed point about a greenhouse not being the best place to take cover when playing stone wars with your mates.
Hes talking about backing your team mate and using Boywer as an example. Maybe you should of read what I wrote.