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

[shiny]

Bobby and Marlene have upped their game of late and i think they should be starting ahead of sheringham and dare i say ashton who has yet to show the quality of a cluib record signing - ill keep my powder dry for now since hes only had a game and a bit so far....but not impressed so far


what do others think of ashton to date?

[Hobbsy]

Bobby and Marlene have upped their game of late and i think they should be starting ahead of sheringham and dare i say ashton who has yet to show the quality of a cluib record signing - ill keep my powder dry for now since hes only had a game and a bit so far....but not impressed so far


what do others think of ashton to date?

As you say hes only had a game and abit and scored a crucial goal (1st goal late on) on his full debut, to say he hasnt impressed sounds abit wrong.

[dodger]

More classic defending from our former Libero ...

Just back, actually thought Breen played well today and snuffed out most of our attacks.
Arca was also very impressive for them, and i think it was a bizarre decision of McCarthy's to bring him off. That combined with Harewood coming on changed the game. For 70 minutes it was mostly our posession and VERY little happening. Last 20 minutes we were all over them and deserved to get a winner. Scaloni was solid, Ashton mostly uninspiring. Was a tough game pyschologically though and am thrilled to get the three points.
Ratings:
Hislop-7 Almost nothing to do.
Konchesky-7 Scored and played pretty well
Gabbidon-7 Solid enough
Ferdinand-7 See Gabbs
Scaloni-7 Looked ***** at first, but then settled down and played very much in a Repka style.
Etherington-8 MOTM. Easily our best player on the day. All Sunderland could do was chop him down first half.
Mullins-6 Gave the ball away quite a lot
Reo-Coker-7 Quiet but some good runs
Benayoun-7 Not really in the game much but when he was we looked dangerous
Ashton-6 Not great, but happy for him that he's got his first goal
Zamora-6 Good effort but no result today for Bobby Z. An away day player only?

SUBS
Sheringham-6 Didn't really do much. Wanted Marlon not him to come on at HT
Harewood-7 Made all the difference after coming on. Pace and power
Dailly-6 No time

All in all a win's a win, though this was certainly a messy one. 6 in a row though you can't argue with that...
COME ON YOU IRONSSS!!!

[Tel The Hammer]

Still looks slightly off premiership pace in my eyes, today would've done him the world of good and i think we'll see a big improvement once he's had a couple more games, i'm not worried at all...

[Mayday]

Bobby and Marlene have upped their game of late and i think they should be starting ahead of sheringham and dare i say ashton who has yet to show the quality of a cluib record signing - ill keep my powder dry for now since hes only had a game and a bit so far....but not impressed so far


what do others think of ashton to date?

Yeah he's ****! He should have scored at least five by now :evil:

FFS give the guy a chance to settle in before you start slating him.

I bet you were one of the 'Pardew Out!' brigade.

FWIW he held the ball up very welll against the arse and has a very nice and deft first touch. He shows a lot of promise. But you wont be interested in anything positive to say about him, will you?

[shiny]

Yeah he's sh*t! He should have scored at least five by now :evil:

FFS give the guy a chance to settle in before you start slating him.

I bet you were one of the 'Pardew Out!' brigade.

FWIW he held the ball up very welll against the arse and has a very nice and deft first touch. He shows a lot of promise. But you wont be interested in anything positive to say about him, will you?

Well my point is Marlene and Z Man are in form at the moment - ashton may turn into one of our best front men ever....BUT why unsettle a strike force who are on top of their games and are scoring plenty between them. It would make sense to bring him on off the bench

[Mayday]

Well my point is Marlene and Z Man are in form at the moment - ashton may turn into one of our best front men ever....BUT why unsettle a strike force who are on top of their games and are scoring plenty between them. It would make sense to bring him on off the bench

Thats a fair comment, so why add the not impressed with Aston bit?

[Gringo Hammer]

Not the most convincing performance, but was never gonna be easy after Highbury. Sounded reasonable enough start from Scaloni, only been in England 5 days, and goal from Ashton....cant ask for much more from those two. Also, very pleased for Konchesky, hopefully the goal will give him a confidence boost. Thought Marlon did really well after being benched too...
Next game home vs. Birmingham under lights on Monday....Wheres the thred????

Onwards and upwards lads....

[tonka_tonka]

i thought it was great to have the options upfront today. But did anyone else think that for the first half and first 10 of the second the boys seemed reluctant to play Scalini in, he had so much space. I was a bit concerned that Ashton and Zman seemed to be in each others space quite a lot. Marlene was awesum today, made all the difference. A good win but it was a bit quiet at times, maybe because it was KFAQ but a bit more noise would have been good.

[Chip Korea]

i'd like to think that pardew will be rotating zamora ashton and marlon. personally marlon plus one of two, he made the difference when he came on. i think harewood will start most games, maybe just coming off the bench against the weaker teams we should be beating anyway.

ashton did alright. zamora may well have scored that goal if he'd been on, but fair play to ashton, he's done everything necessary so far.

all played well. danny didn't have his best game for us but he's been great all season (HOTY with marlon and yossi close behind).

very hard to break the down, but as i say, harewood made the difference.

special mention for scaloni. did very well second half when he was playing right in front of me. got forward very well, looked solid. he's played 50 plus chamions league games and he looks like the sort of player who might be able to help take us up a level.

[tonka_tonka]

by the way i was up in the gods in the rio stand but did anyone get a close look at them yankee birds before the ko..a couple of them looked like that had massive baps and that was spotted from row aa

[SL]

Marlon Harewood is the man. We missed him badly today imo. No real pace, no urgency and no real defending from the front. Losing Bobby was a big blow.

Teddy and Ashton up front didnt look right and dosnt really fit with our pace and power style of play.

Bobby and Marlon up front for me.

[EggyG]

Zamora & Ashton as a pair didnt look like they were going to work together, they made very similar runs a lot of the time, and on a number of occasions actually got in each other way.

You could see the quailty of Ashton, when Ted came on, held the ball up well, and made a number of good runs, plus did well in the air.

That is not to take anything away from Zamora, who as we all know has been a different player these last 2 months.

[tonyo]

I don't think anyone can really have a go at Ashton today, he ran his b*llocks off but got very little service. Don't forget he's only just come back from a groin injury, can't expect him to be 100% match fit straight away. He also needs time to get used to our system and the way we play. A few more games and I'm sure we'll see him get better and better.

But overall great result, not the best performance. Marlon made all the difference when he came on and should take a lot of the credit.

[abel]

Just got back.

Godd win, them having a man getting sent off acually made it hard for us to break them down.

These sorts of games do not suit NRC and Mullins, they are far better, esp NRC when they have space to break forward which was not the case tdoay.

Harewood looked so sharp when he came on, upped the tempo by 1000%. Showed a brilliant atitude to being left out.

Great for Ashton to get a goal, IMO a good solid performance, won a far share in the air just need to get a bit sharper when the ball gets played to him.

Good decision by Pards to take Bobby off at half time, although Teddy was far from great he was always guna more more effective in a game that needed gile and airial prowess to win.

[Ironball]

i thought it was great to have the options upfront today. But did anyone else think that for the first half and first 10 of the second the boys seemed reluctant to play Scalini in, he had so much space. I was a bit concerned that Ashton and Zman seemed to be in each others space quite a lot. Marlene was awesum today, made all the difference. A good win but it was a bit quiet at times, maybe because it was KFAQ but a bit more noise would have been good.

Well the highlight of the match was the New Orleans cheerleaders, no doubt.

As for the football, you are dead right about Scaloni - he had the run of the park in the first half. I think Harewood coming on was not just beneficial in terms of his power and running, it was beneficial because it suddenly opened up half of the pitch that was just not being used in the first half.

This is becoming an issue Pards needs to sort out - Yossi is a right-sided player in name only now and there were repeated occasions in the first half when the right wing was screaming out for a touchline run; NRC did one I think, but that was it. When Marlon came on he was fantastic, and I think he should be used on the right hand side next week, with Ashton and Zamora up front. Unfortunately, shortly after the goal AP rejigged things again and Harewoon went up front, and our width and balance shrank accordingly.

Great result, some encouraging performances; we have a chance to kick on and have a great end to the season - but have gotta get the right side balance working!

[tonyo]

Spot on, I was saying at half time that we were too reliant on Konch and matty and weren't swiching the play enough. As soon as Marlon came on the spaces started to open up and ultimately imo thats what led to the breakthrough.

[Chip Korea]

for what it's worth, i meant ashton did ok. 6 or maybe 7 out of ten - actually 7 cos he got the goal. i'm not gonna judge him for at least 5 - 10 games, but so far he's done everything asked of him without setting the world alight.

just heard an interview with pardew saying that harewood was rested and implying that rotation is the way forward - also a bit of a hint that harewood would not be rested as much as some of the others. and he said he was very pleased with harewood's performance on the pitch and motivating the others in the dressing room. if true then very encouraging.

we are looking like a really tight set-up, with pace, power, skill, discipline and commitment. we're not yet quite as good a "home side" as redkapp managed at his peak (a long time ago) but as an all round team this is the best i've seen in 8 or 9 years of holding a season ticket.

bring it on. i'm looking at the 3 point gap to champions league football and dreaming! we can't get carried away like that, but we're getting damn close to looking great!!!!

[Marky]

Marlon Harewood is the man. We missed him badly today imo. No real pace, no urgency and no real defending from the front. Losing Bobby was a big blow.

Teddy and Ashton up front didnt look right and dosnt really fit with our pace and power style of play.

Bobby and Marlon up front for me.

Bang on about Marlon
Mullins was great
We were very poor though for 75 mins. Stephen Wright let them down big time

[Israeli_Hammer]

Frustrating match to watch, but I'm well pleased with the patience and consistency we've shown to earn a deserved 6th win in a row.

Sunderland opened up quite well with some unexpected pressure, but some fantastic runs by NRC and Ethers forced Steven Wright to stop them in their tracks by handling, which resulted in two bookings that sent him off. From that point on Sunderland simply shut down the shop at the back, and never really tried to play decent football (bar Kevin Kyle, who made terrific work alone up front holding the ball and putting never ending pressure on our defenders). Except 2 good Konchesky crosses that missed a foot to tap them in, we never went too close.

The introduction of Teddy in Place of Z-man, who appeared to have taken a knock after getting seriously tackled twice, didn't really add that edge we needed in order to break 10 men Sunderland, despite some good chances for Yossi in the box and a dodgy Sheringham header, it was Marlon's entrance that changed it all around. TV replays proved that his tap-in following Ashton's saved shot shouldn't have been ruled offside at all (Harewood was about a yard behind Breen when Ashton fired his left footer :shock: ). But thankfully a reversal of roles between Marlon and Deano finally broke the deadlock as Marlon fired from the right, Davies saved but Ashton was well alert to make use of the rebound to score his debut goal.

Minutes later Konch made an absolutely fantastic run to set up Ashton for a sitter which he strangely only managed to divert to the side-netting, but thankfully Konchesky was rewarded with a goal for his fantastic match in our next move as he fired a 35 low drive that was deflected by Davies into the net.

Hislop: Had nothing to do. 6.
Scaloni: Nice first performance. Needs to help out more offensively though. 7.
Konchesky: Fantastic, loss of form my arse. 8.
Ferdinand: Solid as ever. 7.
Gabbidon: Solid, never gave Kyle a chance to break loose. 7.
Benayoun: A bit quiet. Could have done a lot more as we really needed his creativity to break down such a defensive side, but still did reasonably alright. 7.
Etherington: Constant threat down the left, continues his great run of form. 8.
Mullins: Got stuck in and broke down much of their attempts of moves. 7.
Reo-Coker: Great energy as usual, kept ball movement even when it looked like we might get desperate. 8.
Zamora: Worked hard but didn't get too much support from the back in the first half. 7.
Ashton: Was quiet until Harewood came in, pleased that he got his first goal. 7.
Sheringham: Just like Yossi, could have done a lot more in terms of creativity, didn't play up to his standard in his link-up play. 6.
Harewood: Made all the difference, brilliant. 8.
Dailly: Came in to shift back to 442. 6.

Who needs the Intertoto, we're 3 points away of a Champions League spot! Keep it up West Ham!! :worthy: