Best Ever Individual Performance At Upton Park

Following Gareth Bale Hotspurs taking three points against West Ham on Monday night, I’m going back in time to recall the best individual performance I’ve personally seen at Upton Park.

 

Are you on Facebook? Excellent, so are we http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/ForeverWestHamcom/200938616608282

 

Having been a season ticket holder for 10 years, there’s a lot of games to remember let alone the players. Since I’ve been sat in the upper tier in the newly christened Alpari Stand, we’ve had the likes of Plymouth Argyle and Gillingham in Championship fixtures to the more eye capturing tie of Napoli in the Europa League.

Also, how do you describe the finest individual performance? Does it count if a striker scores four in one game but can’t pass five yards and is scared of a tackle? A defender who throws his body at everything, risking everything for his team, or is it the goal keeper that makes several incredible saves to keep the team in the game?

But for me only one performance sticks to mind. A 3-1 against Bolton Wanderers on the 5^th May 2007. The win not only gave us three points but took us out of the relegation zone after being tipped for relegation nearly all season. It was the 6^th win in our seven wins from the last nine games and as mentioned was significant because we were now free from the drop zone with Manchester United the last game of the season.

 

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

 

The player who stole the show is still a West Ham favourite and goes by the name of Carlos Tevez. Being under so much pressure and controversy for the whole of the season, the Argentine stepped up when it really mattered. Manager at the time Alan Curbishley even told the media that Tevez shouldn’t have played due to an ankle injury and had spent the build-up to the game in an oxygen chamber. But a stunning free kick in the tenth minute set the tempo. A curling effort above the wall left Jussi Jääskeläinen no chance and Tevez was soon running into the crowd celebrating.

It only took ten minutes later for Carlos to add another. He slotted in a second when he and Luis Boa Morte were left to run clear on goal and the midfielder unselfishly squared for Tevez to slide it past Jaaskelainen.

Tevez then turned to provider just before the half hour mark as he sent a smart cross to the back post. Beating both West Ham and Bolton players to find an unmarked Mark Noble who crashed in a volley to make it 3-0 to the boys in claret and blue.

Even though he was labelled as the next Maradona when he moved to Upton Park, it was still amazing to see someone take such a hold in a game and have such an influence. As he is best known, Tevez spent the game tracking back, chasing every ball and using great skill to pass defenders and like Noble’s goal, find his team mates in great positions.

 

Forever West Ham is now on Google+, so be sure to find us on there by quite simply (and rather unsurprisingly) searching ‘Forever West Ham’

 

Although our dream with Carlos only lasted one year, he has become a legend at West Ham and has also said his feelings are mutual, that he loves the club and its fans but who could blame him and especially his agent when Manchester United came sniffing.

Maybe sometime soon, the controversial Mr Tevez will come back to play in the claret and blue.

I’m sure some of the readers of this post have been watching West Ham at home for much longer than my short time, so which individual performance at Upton Park is stuck in your memory?