There was hushed expectation around this game that West Ham would gain a comfortable victory away from home, despite this optimism from the London side, they finished the game beaten by a resilient Reading side.
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Before the game West Ham were on the wrong side of two home defeats to the Merseyside teams by the odd goal, only a draw at the Hawthorns were the only points that West Ham picked up in the last 3 games, the expectation was that West Ham would be able to regain their form and winning mentality. Reading have struggled this season, bottom of the league on Christmas day, which has now become a formality that it is inevitable that you’ll go down at the end of the season. Reading had just one win in 18 games, and had seen some tough results go their way. A one nil loss to Manchester City last Saturday the previous week seemed to sum up a torrid season for Reading.
It was a chance for West Ham United to flex their muscles and show why they are doing well and have adapted so well to the Premier League, also a chance to show Reading’s weaknesses. Though after just 5 minutes James Collins’ poor back pass, or attempted back pass towards Jussi Jaaskelainen was picked up by Pavel Pogrebnyak who coolly struck the ball passed the Finish keeper. The remaining part of the first half was a fairly flat and tedious affair. Neither side created much to admire nor the ball wasn’t exactly flowing around the pitch. The remarkable notice for West Ham’s point of view was the lack of control of the middle of the pitch. Gary O’Neil and Mark Noble needed a map to pass the ball and they were seemingly absent to cause any problems for Reading’s defense, from my point of view. Though credit to Reading, they defended well and caused West Ham to make unforced errors by some persistent running and this in turn caused a strong number of the away support to start getting restless with the performance.
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At the start of the second half, West Ham United seemed to finally have a purpose and were playing with more fluency and togetherness. The plan was evident, they were sitting far too deep in the first half, despite that, in the second half, the defense pushed up in an attempt to get the side creating more in attack. This then ensued with some cutting attacks, albeit few and far between. West Ham made some attacking changes, and so did Reading. Reading came closest to scoring when they hit the bar, though none came closer than Ricardo Vaz Te whose late header almost found the back of net but went agonizingly wide.
In all a frustrating and very disappointing day for West Ham, though Reading deserve credit for grinding out a tough result, it will be a tough year for the Royals, but they have hope. West Ham will need some arrivals in January, but if the side play anywhere near as bad as they did this weekend, much is to be feared.
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Running on empty and crippling injury list, not a great place to be with half the season to go! Add to that a small and just promoted squad and you could fear for a long hard struggle in the months ahead just to survive relegation! But we are better than that!, if Big Sam can get the right players in without damaging the club financially and the injuries ease, especially to key players then we will be more than alright! It is a real shame as when fit the team were looking good and some of the doom and gloom merchants were being won overbuy Big Sam’s clever variations and teamwork. He was showing with better footballers just how good a manager he is. But now he will really have to earn his money and get us some wins! Keep the faith and in Big Sam we must trust!
James Collins is our worst Centre Back
Tomkins should easily get in the side above him it annoys the crap out of me. We have conceded and LOST 3 games now because of Collins, its a joke.
Did you watch the game u muppet!! Tomkins was a liability, got regularly beaten and his passing was shocking, couldn’t find a west ham player. Whilst it was a bad mistake, JC has been pretty solid all year. Granted he does make the occasional howler but I would rather he be partnering Reid than Tomkins on current form.
Too often young West Ham players are over hyped. Tomkins needs to knuckle down and become a more rounded defender, then he may beat Collins out. I would love it if he did that as he does have more upside, younger and lots of potential but not finished article!
Because he was played out of position!!!!!! He is not a right back, he’s a Centre Back with a lot more ability than Collins! Tomkins’current form? You cant bring that into it as he doesnt get a chance in his NATURAL position.
exactly Tomkins is not a right back or a bloody defensive midfielder …center back by trade and by nature ….he should be in next to reid.
why the hell cant BFS play spence at right back ? hes captin of the devlopment team for goodness sake so he got to be worth a punt …and i bet he will impress…leave out old man taylor and play hall on the wing the boy will cause havoc on the wings …BFS i cant wait to you leave ….our personel is good enough to play 2 up front …i hate the way we play safe every game and give the owness to the opposition. we dominated possesion but with 1 up top the chances will be harder to score…look how norwich and swansea both score goals …im sure the commentator said we are second with the least goals away from home second to a poor reading side who even beat us.
Unbelievable mistake by a so called premiership defender and a truly appalling missed header from two yards by a so called premiership forward…two simple reasons why we lost a game where we had over 60% of possession and the lions share of the chances…nothing more to add. Collins is brilliant attacking balls and blocking shots, but anything more technical and I worry. Hes cost us this season with some worryingly basic errors, and Tomkins can consider himself a little unlucky that he hasnt been called in more often to partner Reid in the centre. I said at the outset that 15th or 16th was where we would end up and im sticking to that. The early season optimism was always false given the recent run of games we had against the big boys but the home games against the smaller teams will be the reason we stay up.
Tomkins needs to be more agressive, he looks like a school boy when up against some forwards. He gets out of position a lot when playing in central defence.
They way we play, with a slow build up gives opposition defences time to snuffle our ‘decisive pass’, and we end up with too many players in their box leaving no room for our forward players to swing a leg or jump, the only forward who can score when we play like this is Kevin Davies.
Kevin Davies with Kevin Nolan playing just behind 🙂 Scare any defence.