West Ham opened their pre-season fixtures last season with a disappointing draw at Austrian third tier side Sturm Graz II.
The tie ended a lacklustre 0-0, with the Hammers, despite controlling the game for much of the 90 minutes, unable to find the net.
Slaven Bilic used the fixture to field a number of the clubs younger stars including Toni Martinez and Reece Burke. Mark Noble and Pedro Obiang also returned to action after lengthy periods on the sidelines, and new Hammer Pablo Zabaleta made his debut in Claret and Blue.
Fans however were left underwhelmed with the result, with many expecting a rout against a side playing their football at the lower end of Austria’s footballing pyramid. The faithful were even more infuriated after the game as manager Bilic revealed that his side had struggled to even find the net in training.
Many took to Twitter to share their thoughts. Fair to say the result didn’t go down too well …
Bilic: "Sturm Graz were lively. We should have scored maybe five or six goals but, to be fair, we are not scoring enough goals in training." pic.twitter.com/iObo3y3y9z
— West Ham (C)entral 🏆 (@WestHam_Central) July 18, 2017
https://twitter.com/AranNicolWHUFC/status/887019263323713537
Snodgrass needs to be sold ASAP
— West Ham Transfers (@westhamtransfer) July 17, 2017
Didn't think it was actually possible, but Snodgrass has got worse
— West Ham News (@WHUFC_News) July 17, 2017
Love wasting 90 minutes of my life watching West Ham draw 0-0 to the reserves of a third tier Austrian team
— West Ham News (@WHUFC_News) July 17, 2017
They're in the third tier of Austrian football https://t.co/v0yhLDzX4O
— Chazwazza (@CharBigPotatoes) July 18, 2017
it's as if we're short of strikers. This is noteworthy.
— Mr Spike T (@PikesReturn) July 18, 2017
