West Ham have a shot at redemption

So…yet another win against all the odds at White Hart Lane occurred on Tuesday night, it was another one of those games where the press/media write us off, Spurs fans (predictably) write us off and even our own felt that we had no chance of winning; and yet we came, we saw and we conquered yet again.

Before this season we had witnessed 13 years worth of trips up to the home of the lilywhite’s with nothing to show but the odd draw and the more familiar comfortable defeat, and now we have two wins in the space of just over two months.

Confidence and belief are such incredible forces, not just in football but also in life and it was clear to see that as soon as Matt Jarvis equalised there was a determination, hunger and belief to win the game within the 90 minutes. Had we not triumphed at the Lane just a couple of months earlier perhaps that belief wouldn’t have been there, perhaps it would’ve gone to extra-time, perhaps we would conceded a stoppage time winner at the hands of our favourite pint sized villain Jermain Defoe.

Nothing in football surprises me anymore but the fact that the same faces in the media who write off our chances of beating the ‘mighty’ Tottenham Hotspur on their own patch are already drooling over the prospect of a Manchester Derby showpiece at Wembley is beginning to irk me, have they learned nothing from our back to back wins at the Lane?

Now of course over-coming Manchester City over two legs will be an incredibly difficult feat; they are battering everyone out of sight at the Etihad, they have in my opinion the best team in England and some of the finest players on the planet; but what they do not have and this could prove vital to our hopes of reaching the final of 2013/14 Capital One Cup, they don’t have the 2^nd leg at home.

If we can keep the tie alive in the first leg then I would fancy a full house at the Boleyn, under the lights to overcome Sheik Mansour’s superstars, particularly if a certain Andy Carroll was fit and firing.

Now of course our relegation battle is our priority, but what a wonderful distraction this cup run is providing. three years ago we were 3-1 up on aggregate against Birmingham City in the semi’s of this competition and somehow we threw it away and Birmingham went on to win the cup, our shot at redemption has come around three years later and I really do hope we take it.

For as it’s so eloquently written around a ground on which we cannot stop winning ‘The game is about glory’