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Forever West Ham’s end of year awards

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With 2012 almost being put to bed I feel it is time to look back at one of the most eventful years in West Ham’s history. A year in which we experienced disappointment, joy, surprise and over achievement in equal shares. With this in mind, I thought I’d award my alternative Hammers’ prizes for the calendar year 2012.

 

 

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Best player

 

Though I have a slightly unhealthy obsession with Kevin Nolan, I feel that only fair to award it to the player who has performed consistently well. With Big Mohamed Diame only playing half a season for us so far, the award in my opinion, should go to Winston Reid. Here’s a player who under Sam has flourished and make the centre back position his own. Add to that his composure and strength when making the step back up to the Premiership, and Winston wins hand down.

 

 

Best team performance

 

With a few impressive displays, including a 3-1 win over Chelsea, since our return to the Premiership, this was not an easy category to pick a winner. 6-0 v Brighton was impressive, as were both legs of the play-offs semi against Cardiff (sorry Kipper!) But the game I chose was 4-1 away to Blackpool. With Robert Green sent off early in the second half, Henri Lansbury played in goal for the remainder of the game. A gutsy performance then saw West Ham not only keep Blackpool at bay, but add to their total. A brilliant team performance.

 

 

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Best solo performance

 

From only a few weeks ago, Momo Diame against Chelsea. The very definition of game changer. Losing 1-0 at half time, Momo came off the bench and bullied the Chelsea side giving us a platform to build on and eventually taking all three points in front of a boisterous Boleyn Ground. Chelsea were completely rocked by what was a match winning second half performance.

 

 

Best goal

 

Ricardo Vaz Te v Blackpool (for what it meant) Vaz Te’s overhead kick v Brighton and Reid’s goal v Millwall (cos it’s Millwall) are all worthy contenders, but the goal I think was our best of 2012 came from Modibo Maiga against Southampton. A solo effort in which he took a few players out of the game with power and then finished with the outside of his boot into the bottom corner. Class. I loved it!

 

 

Funniest moment

 

This is obviously a personal choice of which I’m one of very few to ‘witness’ but I really wish to share this true tale. After a heavy night on the sauce with Choppy and getting in about 2am, I had to be up for the Reading game. Drinking copiously on the journey from Dorset with my father and best mate amongst others, it was a messy occasion. Long story short, losing 2-1 at half time my best mate visited the little boys room to relieve himself. Unfortunately, such was the excessive nature of our drinking he got lost and couldn’t find his seat. Therefore, he somehow (and amazingly) watched the second half from a pressbox! A nickname was born. To this day we have no idea how this happened.

 

 

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And finally, memory of the season.

 

Though I didn’t make it to Wembley because of both redundancy and injury, it has to be Ricardo’s rocket that sent our fans wild and our boys into the Premiership. Just because it granted us promotion and we won at Wembley, I’ll say it was definitely worth the pain of draws against the likes of Doncaster, Watford and Bristol City. Almost.

 

Happy Christmas one and all.

 

Smudgy

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