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West Ham’s Season Was Good But It Could Have Been Better

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Joey O'BrienIf you had told me on the morning of May 19th 2012 (as I was walking into Wembley and praying that we beat Blackpool to win promotion), that exactly one year later on May 19th 2013, we’d have finished tenth in the Premier League, I’d have thought that was too good to even dream about.

Now, here we are, a few days on from May 19th 2013. We’ve finished in the top ten in our first promoted season- one in which the other two teams who had been promoted above us last year have ended up finishing below us this year (with Reading, who topped the championship last year, relegated weeks before the season’s end.) We lost a mere four games at home this season- all games in which we led at one point. We drew with Manchester United on two occasions, drew with Manchester City, and beat Chelsea at Upton Park- all excellent achievements. All in all, sounds like a good season, right?

Except that we could have done so much better.

What? Top ten in our first season up, and we should have done better?!?

Yes, and I’m neither greedy nor crazy. I’m just not content with feeling grateful for tenth when I consider the amount of games we let slip through our fingers this season.

Reading away, Spurs at home, Aston Villa away, Liverpool away, and QPR at home all ended up being games that we should have gotten more out of, as well as the fact that the Hammers displayed a rather consistently shocking away form (having won all of three away games) this season.

West Ham now need to move up in the league. Yes, we did well this season, but we went into our last game knowing that we could finish 14th if we failed to win and other results failed to go our way. It’s not enough to say we did better than what was expected initially; in reality we were capable of achieving even more than we did. We’re a good side, we occasionally play brilliant football, and could be even better once we manage to sort out how to play well for a full 90 minutes.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m in no way slagging the team off. They’ve done well. Beating Chelsea 3-1 at home was not just a season highlight; it was a life highlight (I even re-damaged my fractured foot as I couldn’t stop myself from jumping up and down after the second goal.) Allardyce has bought and managed well; Jussi has been brilliant, Nolan, when allowed to play in on offensive midfield role, has been a force of nature. Reid and Collins have been excellent, and Collins in particular has saved the day way too many times to count this season.

This season, the squad looked like a cohesive unit, and you get the idea that the players generally enjoyed working with each other. I am proud of the Club for finishing top ten, and I was certainly jumping up and down when the whistle blew against Reading, but I believe now is not a time for contentment. Had we managed to keep marking Gareth Bale (and Robin Van Persie) in the 90th minute, shut down QPR (I mean, really), and not had that dreadful back pass against Reading, we’d have had a lot more points at our disposal- meaning we weren’t far off from pushing for Europe.

There have been an incredible amount of high points this season, but we were capable of doing even better. Hopefully in the 2013/14 season we will start believing that and, more importantly, showing it.

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6 comments

  • hammermolder says:

    Dont be to greedy,lol,excellent first season in prem,we need a few seasons to build a team to contend in europe,given time ,i believe big sam will get us there, coyi

  • The Cat says:

    Here we are end of a fantastic season, all patting ourselves on the back thinking that in two short years, after the nonsense and mismanagement of the previous years, our Chairmen and Big Sam have finally turned this club around.

    …………and then. Someone pipes up telling us that we could have and probably should’ve done better.

    I’m Speechless!

  • legends11 says:

    after the start to season we had, and the players showing the potential they did, i would consider 46 points to be disappointing. relieving but disppointing. too many poor halves and poor performances for me. also poor displays in the cups showed lack of ambition. …our ability to keep the ball was very worrying. …
    many people are happy with 10th but i’m not. … i dont compare to last season. i compare to 2-3 seasons ago before we gave the job to Grant. Before Gold and Sullivan pulled the carpet from under Zola’s feet.

  • The Cat says:

    Grant was grade ‘A’ incompetent but Zola was naive and inexperienced allowing others (Nani & the Dux’) around him to make decisions on players coming into the club remember that wonderful £9 million pound player called Savio? Or any of the other dross to arrive.
    When Zola was finally relieved of his duties, we had JUST escaped relegation because the teams that went down were WORSE than we were!

    The rose tinted goggles that some of our supporters wear are incredible. Pour me a pint of that, I want to live as a lotto winner without having won it!

  • Dave says:

    Big Sam has won me over, from where we were we are a team with cohesion, organisation and belief. To many times before Sam arrived we could not play for ninty minutes, we could also not fight back form going behind. A VERY BIG WELL DONE FROM ME. Looking forward to a brighter future, coy.

  • Westhamwag says:

    Happy with 10th and yeah we could have got more points if all the disallowed offside goals had stood and refs/assistants gave the right decisions. Onwards and upwards.

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