Back-to-back defeats…now this is a feeling as West Ham fans we’re all familiar with, winning four on the spin was great but it isn’t nice to have the same old West Ham back? The performance and result at Stoke City was more or less what we’ve come to expect away from home up until the heroics at Aston Villa, Chelsea and Cardiff City.
The insipid defeat at Stoke now leaves us a precarious six points from the dreaded drop zone, a drop zone that we perhaps thought we’d seen the last of when Kevin Nolan hooked in the third against Southampton to seal all three points for the fourth game in succession. Make no mistake we are still firmly in the midsts of a relegation scrap.
Something that worries me and it shouldn’t because we won’t go down, I cannot believe that despite Fulham and Cardiff scraping wins out of nowhere in the last couple of weeks that they’re going to haul themselves out of the bottom three, so I still have the pair of them to go do down, meaning only one spot is up for grabs, but I digress; the thing that still worries me as a Hammers fan is that five of our last nine fixtures are against the top seven clubs of this country…starting at home to Manchester United next Saturday evening.
We will have to see a marked improvement from the showing at the Britannia if we’re to sneak a point or dare I say it all three against David Moyes’ boys. Against Stoke, West Ham were poor in both boxes (perhaps missing the physicality and aerial ability of the omitted James Collins?)And the Potters particularly in the 2nd half got their tactics spot on, letting West Ham have the ball and catching us on the break to devastating effect.
Yes the referee missed a blatant handball and yes at 2-1 we should’ve had a pen and you’d like to think Mark Noble would’ve tucked it away and levelled up the score; but you cannot deny that Stoke were the better team, especially in the 2nd period and dare I say it they played the better football and all. (Has anyone and I mean ever written that about a Stoke City side?)
West Ham need to stop the rot and immediately, three defeats on the spin at this stage of the season could plunge us back into the rat race, so a defeat against this incredibly poor Manchester United side is not an option.
After United back to back games loom against Hull City at home and Sunderland away and I’d like to think in those 2 games we will get the points that see us finally slay our relegation dragon…if not back to back games against Liverpool and Arsenal could put us back firmly in the mire.
I think you saw a different game to me ! Thought we were very good in second half and had Stoke on the back foot for the most part , not an insipid performance for me . Nolan’s “goal” was clearly on side and the handball couldn’t have been more obvious .Unlucky not get a share of the points .
Learn the offside rule be for you coment about it m8, ye I agree you could ov had a peno but we were the better team face it
Nolan’s goal was clearly offside, if you think otherwise, then you should ask your Mrs the offside rules, as obviously you don’t know them.
What game were you watching, when you say that Stoke allowed West Ham the ball, and we hit on the counter, the fact we have more possession throughout the match contradicts your statement. Stoke outplayed west ham, and if not for your keeper, we would of scored more, 9 Shots on target to your 2 shows, where you were lacking in the game.
“And the Potters particularly in the 2nd half got their tactics spot on, letting West Ham have the ball and catching us on the break to devastating effect”
Clearly you just watched the game on MOTD as that is completely incorrect, we out passed and had far more shots than you and at the end of the day we deserved to win!! Plus your goal wasn’t even a free kick anyway…
As for this “blatant handball” How could our player even see the ball when Carroll is elbowing him in the face??? You’re arguments make absolutely no sense whatsoever 🙂
Nolans goal was onside???? Do you know the offside rule??? Do you know anything about football???? Should of had a penalty yes!! West ham better team in the second half??? You had two shots all game!!! I do recall your goal keeper making three excellent saves in the space of five minutes in second half alone, get a grip if your gonna try and pass judgment!!!
Offside? Definitely. The rule states that for a player to be onside there has to be two defenders behind a goal keeper in an advanced position. Unfortunately for Nolan there was only one! Linesman was spot on! Penalty decision did look solid to be fair but the referee was poor for both teams.