West Ham Utd 2 Sunderland 0 (04/02/06)

[kenthammer]

good all round performance today imho,Ashton chased everything and Scaloni got better as the game progressed.Wright being sent off probably hindered us more than helped but we got the result and 3 points

[w4hammer]

the crowd was very patient today...much better than youd normally expect at KFAQ games
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personnaly, i hate these games...the whole crowd and atmosphere aint right

[butzee]

the crowd was very patient today...much better than youd normally expect at KFAQ games
\\

personnaly, i hate these games...the whole crowd and atmosphere aint right

\tyler interviewed mcarthy and said the offside goal was in fact ONSIDE also pards sat marlene down and said he wont be auto choice for starting 11 bet that went down well????

[butzee]

\tyler interviewed mcarthy and said the offside goal was in fact ONSIDE also pards sat marlene down and said he wont be auto choice for starting 11 bet that went down well????

:aveit: :raver: Bring on the brum seven on the run!!!!

[bluebutterfly]

Mine just kicks a ball and shouts a lot.

thats all mine does too

[If only....]

Some of you are being a bit silly.

Ashton and Scolari both had good, solid, promising debuts. Ashton got a lot of poor service (over-hit passes to his chest) but held the ball up well. The partnership with TS did not work (Teddy is the last forward in the world you want running onto the ball!) but he had two chances, socred one and forced a good header. Scolari made one error in the first half, but won every tackle in the second, got forward and put in some decent crosses. At last we have a decent right back.

Overall, the game reminded me of so many last year - ten men behind the ball, trying to delay things, upending our players when necessary and trying to kill the game. It wasn't pretty at times, but the team stuck to their guns and forced the result.

Two other points:

I note some posters on here we suggesting we should have gone for Kelvin Davies, rather than Carroll. He was terrible - his distribution worse than Bywater, and he let the second goal through his hands.

Teddy - he doesn't offer us much these days. He certainly cannot work well without a very fast player alongside him. I cannot see any merit in keeping him beyond this season.

I agree with CD's points.

Thought the crowd could have tried harder to get more noise going as the team were obviously finding it a slog at times. But I sit in the BMU which is hardly rocking at the best of times.

Someone earlier said Marlon looked pissed off at the end. The impression I had was more like confidence in a job well done with him having driven us to two more points and sending a challenge to Pards to leave him out again. Stich that....

Three great points that in years gone by we would have let slip away.

[Rightback]

No real complaints today.
I thought we started slugishly, lacking a bit of the urgency that we've come to expect. That said, Sunderland did well in getting people behind the ball and slowing us down.
But, we were patient, built from the back and got our rewards in the end.

I agree with CD's comments about Ashton but would rather wait to see Scolari really tested before going as far as to see we finally have a rightback. But, he showed great promise, one or two decent challenges and as CD rightly pointed out, some decent crosses.

Nice striker's goal for Ashton in what proved a difficult game. There was rarely a second when he didn't have one or two defenders around him.

Most have been right in their assessment of Marlon in my opinion. I thought he was excellent.

I feel a small mention should be made to the Sunderland fans. They filled their allocation and sang all afternoon. It can't have been much fun for them this year and I thought they did their club proud. There, I've said it and I feel OK.

Overall, a professional job today. We dominated most of the game and finally ground out the result we deserved. Well done lads.

[webby the iron]

People are being unduly harsh.

I agree with ClaretDave. Ashton looked good imo all things considered. Thought he showed a good touch and got some shocking service. Think it's very positive as he must have been lacking fitness...also think whilst Yossi doesn't stand out as much as he did this is because a- we're playing better as a team and b- he is performing a good team role, he does a lot of running and link work, work which often goes un-noticed. He covers a lot of ground.

Scolari got better as the game went on,particularly when he got more ball in the second half. Think he could prove to be an excellent signing- if he works on the lingo!

I'm just really happy that we have sugned a good, 7million pound striker to simply improve our squad- NOT to save us from relegation or replace mental and/or veteran strikers.

UP THE IRONS!!!

[pharaoh]

People are being unduly harsh.

I agree with ClaretDave. Ashton looked good imo all things considered. Thought he showed a good touch and got some shocking service. Think it's very positive as he must have been lacking fitness...also think whilst Yossi doesn't stand out as much as he did this is because a- we're playing better as a team and b- he is performing a good team role, he does a lot of running and link work, work which often goes un-noticed. He covers a lot of ground.

Scolari got better as the game went on,particularly when he got more ball in the second half. Think he could prove to be an excellent signing- if he works on the lingo!

I'm just really happy that we have sugned a good, 7million pound striker to simply improve our squad- NOT to save us from relegation or replace mental and/or veteran strikers.

UP THE IRONS!!!

Yes, I agree. Also in years gone by we wouldn't have signed someone if we were doing well in the league, we would have just kept the same squad. IMO this is where we went wrong in 1985-86 and the following year. When the team was doing well we were great, but had no one to bring in in case of injuries, suspension and loss of form. Which is what occured the following year and led us back to mediocrity and relagation. When was the last time we made a major signing like this and couldn't guarentee him a game? Even if the signing just ensured BZ and Marlon didn't relax and forced them to keep their foot on the pedal it would have been money well spent, every game one of the forwards doesn't score or plays badly he will be looking over his shoulder. I cannot ever remember that occuring at this club before.