Another frustrating night at Upton Park led to more dropped points, as West Ham blew a 1-0 lead to draw 1-1 with play-off hopefuls Middlesbrough.
Boro were coming off the back of successive defeats and looked there for the taking in the first half, but our lack of creativity and cutting edge was again highlighted as we were restricted to half chances at best.
Nicky Maynard and Mark Noble had shooting opportunities from range, but Maynard’s was easily held by Jason Steele whilst Nobles flew over the bar.
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Boro were failing to cause our back four any issues and were inviting us to attack, and it looked like we may have won a penalty when James Tomkins’ header appeared to be blocked by Matthew Bates arm, but the referee felt it came off his shoulder.
The final chance of the half fell to Carlton Cole who did well to create some space for himself but failed to get over his shot, sending it over the bar.
We seemed to play with a bit more intent in the second half, but were still failing to penetrate the Boro defence, and it looked like it was going to either take something special or a bit of luck to break the dead-lock.
Unsurprisingly, it was the latter as the ever-impressive Abdoulaye Faye rose to meet George McCartney’s cross. His header deflected off Joe Bennett and looped nicely over Jason Steele and into the top corner.
It was a relief to see us take the lead, all be it from a slightly fortunate goal, and it looked like we could go on and win comfortably from there, but as soon as the goal went in Sam Allardyce reverted to 4-5-1 with John Carew (who looked off the pace) up front on his own.
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After Tomkins had a header touched onto the bar our negative approach proved costly. Boro began to get players forward and got an equaliser through substitute Bart Ogbeche as he produced the kind of finish that we are crying out to see from one of our own forwards, smashing it in off the post.
Boro could have won it as Jutkiewicz had a shot deflected onto the bar, but the game finished 1-1 to send us all home with an all too familiar feeling of frustration.
Much like the game away at Leeds on Saturday, we didn’t deserve to lose the match but we certainly haven’t done enough to win it and whilst Allardyce will continue to blame refereeing decisions, boos from the fans and not taking our chances, it is clear that something is fundamentally wrong.
We are not creating enough chances, and simply can’t rely on our forwards to score the few half-chances that occur from long balls and set-pieces.
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Whilst we have some good midfielders, they are all too similar and none of them are creative players. There’s no Yossi Benayoun, no Joe Cole, no Devonshire and there’s certainly no Paolo Di Canio. But if things continue as they are under Fat Sam, it may not be long before we see Paulo again, and even though it will be in the dug-out as opposed to the pitch, I say the sooner the better.
Our forwards have managed 20 goals between them in 37 matches, which sums up the struggle we are now in ! Allardyce is unable to change his out of date tactics. Our best chance of finishing in the top two rests on Reading slipping. Pathetic !!!!
PDC for manager, now please Mr Gold and Mr Sullivan.
firstly reverted to a 4 5 1 after we scored? it was always a 4 5 1 and secondly we have had a difficult run of games and not lost any, look at reading run in its a mine field they will drop bundles of points the most important game now is reading at home all sam needs to do is play 2 up top and there wont be any problems
what is the point in loaning Lansbury and buying Morrison if all they are gonna do is sit on the bench. why have we not tried the pairing of Maynard and Baldock with Tomkins reverting to centreback and bringing in lansbury or morrison and trying to play on the deck . Surely with the lack of playing time these players have had arrange a behind closed doors friendly and try it out ? What have we got to lose? Dont just keep churning out the same old dross!!
You worry too much about your rivals and dont get your own house in order first.
You cling on to the past remembering ex players etc.
Back your manager and support your team!!
If you believe Dickanio is the answer then hammers fans are stupider than they look.
The problem is also square pegs in round holes. Maynard and Baldock were bought as strikers and are always playing as wingers for Sam. They have both lost all the confidence in front of goal and snatch at everything because of this. Tomkins is not a midfielder. He constantly gets in the way of Noble as he is playing out of his comfort zone. Recently McCartney playing as a right back! It all beggars belief! Nolan yesterday was shocking. Why take off Noble when Nolan was so poor? Cole was his usual terrible self. 9 goals does not make a striker. Its time for Morrison, Lansbury to start.
Collison needs to be benched for a few games with Cole. Give Maynard and Baldock the next 5 games as a pairing. It cannot be any worse!
For those screaming for PDC sort yourself out , yes he has done well but div 2 coming up to div1 is a certainly not the same as getting us up to the prem from the chumps league . Give him a couple more seasons first and see how he does or should you rather he come to us now with the possibility of falling flat on his face and UP boo boys turning him from a legend to another rat face
Few ridiculous statements – West Ham have played 4-5-1 all season and did for the whole 90 minutes on Tuesday. It’s players playing out of position. Does confuse me that people at a game cannot see what formation is being played?
Getting on the back of the manager is not going to help at all as the team need support from the home crowd like they do away from home.