It was without doubt the most important game of the season thus far and we undoubtedly put in our worst performance of the season thus far. If come the summer Sam Allardyce finds himself moving onto pastures new; he may well look back to this shambolic display at Hawthorns as the catalyst for change.
With our lingering hopes of being involved in the scrap for fourth all but over, as we sit seven points off the coveted final Champions League spot with Spurs, Arsenal and Chelsea to play in three of our next four games; our cup run took on added significance and whilst it looked a tricky tie, it looked winnable.
The comprehensive battering at the hands of Albion was unbelievably shocking; this season no-one has really battered us, we’ve only suffered seven defeats in 25 league games; unheard of for West Ham in the Premier League era. But everything about the performance at the Hawthorns was woeful; we lost virtually every tackle, every second ball and we didn’t have our first shot on target until well into the 2nd half.
Whilst we struggled, laboured and toiled to create anything of note, West Brom dominated proceedings far too easily considering what was at stake. Twelve points separate us in the league but you could be forgiven for thinking that the points difference was in the Baggies favour.
It’s really difficult to accept that after the Everton epic and Adrian’s heroics we’ve ended up getting knocked out in such a meek fashion.
The old footballing cliché now comes into effect as we attempt to ‘concentrate on the league’ however we’re not going to go down and it will be incredibly difficult to finish any higher than eighth now that Spurs and Liverpool have finally got their collective acts together (about time considering the dosh they’ve spent) so we’re sort of left in Premier League purgatory for the last thirteen games.
Our form has undeniably dipped in the 2nd half of the season; wins have been harder to come by and leads have been increasingly difficult to hang on to. However, it is worth remembering as Aston Villa make quite possibly the most desperate managerial appointment in recent memory how far we’ve come. Isn’t it a relief to not be involved in all that malarkey?
The fashion in which we now end the season will surely be crucial as decisions are made with regards to Big Sam’s future. The remit at the start of the season was better football and a top 10 finish, both of those objectives are on course to be met, however the capitulation at the Hawthorns may well have moved the goal posts.
At the start of the January transfer window we New we needed a centre half,we also new we are weak pace wise from the right flank, we also new Downing is the only creative midfielder we have. No reinforcements secured.This left the squad weak for the remainder of the season,then the inevitable injury list due to heavy winter pitches.Sam’s reluctance to use one or two young players in the first team has cost us dear.We will struggle for the remainder of the season as Sam’s squad selection and inspired use of substitutes will guarantee this outcome.Must make changes in the summer!
Sorry I knew ,wrong spelling.
Unbelievably, it seems that Sam may well have even thrown this cup game in favor of his well known feelings for Premier League or nothing. I mean we busted our guts against Man U and Southampton,we should have won 4 – 6 points from those 2 games, but all that effort for what? we wasted ourselves for just 2 points, leaving nothing left for West Brom, yeah Sam doesn’t take cup games seriously. Look, real big teams don’t give up, and if he wants to keep his job then he bleeding well better get this squad prepared for the battle of their lives. When the opposition starts punching hard, we punch back even harder. Llike when Man U gave us hell in that final 10 minutes in search of their equalizer then we should have given them even more hell back and denied them their habit of late strikes, like 1st it was Chelsea when they equalized in injury time, then last week it was us who were their victims. It’s all in the mind West Ham, the late and great Karate legend Bruce Lee would have told us that, because if we put our mind to it, we can do it. We beat Spurs 3 times last season, we can do them again this Sunday. Spurs beat Chelsea 5-3, so we can also beat Chelsea. We can definitely beat those Arsen holes at the Emirates, if we could beat them in an FA cup final while in the 2nd tier then we can definitely beat them again. Who have they got Giroud and Cazorla? not a scratch on Sakho and Valencia, and as for Pardew’s Palace, well we all know about Pardew’s hot air. This is now our cup run West Ham, let’s take the bull by the horns and win all 4 of these London derbies, lets just up and take our Euro qualifying spot back from these teams, lets show them the grit that comes out of the East End, like we are Henry Coopers Hammer. Get it? Now get out there and bleeding well do it. We want a final season at the Boleyn WITH European football OK!!!