FIVE things we learnt against Bristol City

After a frustrating 1-1 draw at Ashton gate, West Ham must now rely heavily on results if they are to get automatic promotion off Southampton.

So what did we learn?

1. Play offs loom: Following West Ham’s draw and Southampton’s win, we now know that barring a miracle West Ham will go into the lottery of the play offs, The Hammers must now hope that Saints only pick up one point or lose both of their games whilst the Hammers must win both their games and win well to stand a chance of autos. But if the Hammers keep up there form they will go into the play offs full off confidence and belief.

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2. Carew is not good enough: John Carew had chance after chance to secure the Hammers 3 points last night but squandered every one of them. Whether he is off the pace or under confident due to a lack of game time there is no excuse to why he misses these chances but games like these show why we need Carlton Cole despite some fans view on him.

3. Big Sam is willing to gamble: Ok today it didn’t pay off but it was refreshing to see Big Sam make positive changes in the second half. Taking Collins off for Carew and bringing on Faubert and Collison shows the imagination that at times have been lacking from Big Sam tactics. The Hammers certainly created enough opportunities to win two matches let alone one but the missing quality and fitness of Cole meant that the chances fell to Carew rather than the desired Cole or Vaz Te.

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4. We must make the most of our dominant phases: Most games this season the Hammers have had dominant phases of games, the first 40 minutes versus Reading where we only score one when we could have scored a hatful and we were punished. The only games I can think of where we made the most of our dominance is Brighton, Barnsley and Blackpool the 3 B’s. Tonight was another prime example of this problem, for large spells of the game we

create chance after chance but fail to take advantage. For the first half hour at Ashton gate we were camped inside City’s half but only a Tomkins header showed for the dominance. The Hammers must find there killer touch inside the box when they have these spells otherwise points will continue to be lost and with the play offs looming we can’t afford to continue to miss our chances.

5. On a more positive note, we are much tighter at the back: Under Big Sam this season the Hammers have one of the best defensive records in the league. I ask you the question would West Ham have picked up a point tonight had Grant been in charge? I doubt it. The home crowd with the tails up and noisy you would think last year’s team would have bottled it. But under Sam there is fighting power which was desperately lacking last season. Hassling and harrying every ball is refreshing to see and a point well-earned tonight, alas it is not enough for autos but well-earned never the less. We copied well with the pace that the hard working Bristol City team created and but for an uncharacteristic error from Rob Green the Hammers would probably have gone on to win quite comfortably as the home fans were beginning to get restless before Skuse hopeful effort flew past Green.

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Come on You Irons!

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