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After back to back losses against Manchester City and Newcastle, my faith in this West Ham United team had truly been lost.

Up to this point, I had believed in this team, I had believed in Sam and I thought it was only a matter of time before things turned around. But it was the tepidness of the performances in recent weeks that really shocked me. We didn’t play like Sam Allardyce’s West Ham. There was no structure, no grit, no fight. At least in the past we had gone down fighting. But not now. Even the fans had lost their fight, although this was somewhat understandable.

The fans of West Ham was where my love affair with club began. I remember travelling to my first game on my tenth birthday, a 5-0 drubbing of Coventry. But it wasn’t the performance that captured my imagination, although it was scintillating, it was the atmosphere of the place. The raucousness, the noise, the passion that every West Ham fan in the stadium oozed. For me nothing beats going to the Boleyn and I relish every game I watch there, regardless of the result.

But then came the 2nd leg of the League Cup semi-final. I naively bought the tickets assuming that the combination of the magic of the cup and Sam’s notoriously stoic defences would mean that we would escape the Etihad without the tie being totally dead. The brutal 6-0 demolition job that followed was the reward for my faith. But despite the fact I had spent 40 odd quid on a dead tie, I was still excited for a visit to the Boleyn. I thought that maybe the magic of the Boleyn could be worked again and perhaps, even though the tie was dead, we might be able to get a result against this formidable City team and restore some pride and much-needed confidence.

Instead what I was greeted by was a legion of empty seats and a desperate atmosphere. It was a hammer blow (no pun intended) to my expectations for the game before we had even kicked off. I could barely bring myself to sing ‘Bubbles’ and when Aguero tore us apart after two minutes I was ready to leave. I have always remained an optimistic fan in the face of adversity but the justified negativity that had encapsulated the West Ham fans was beginning to break this resilience. The atmosphere that greeted me at the Boleyn was the final straw.

Which is why I’m not entirely sure why I chose to watch the Chelsea match. I was convinced it was a foregone conclusion. It is very rare that a team enters Jose’s house and comes away with anything and the two anaemic West Ham performances that came before the clash at Stamford Bridge hardly convinced me that this game would represent a turn of fortune.

But it did. The steel, backbone and discipline had returned. Everyone one of our players worked their socks off. We harried and pressed and completely closed down a very potent Chelsea side; reducing them to hopeful long shots. It was the return of Big Sam’s West Ham. A team that are tough to beat.

But the real question was could we build on it? Was this just enough flash in the pan like our results against Spurs? One hard fought point at Stamford Bridge is worthless unless you win your home games. Therefore, the game with Swansea posed a completely different set of questions. We had shown at Chelsea that we could close a game out but we had little to show going forward. Could we both close out Swansea and score goals?

What followed was, in my opinion, West Ham’s best performance all season. After an initial shaky opening ten minutes, where we probably let Swansea get too much of the ball, West Ham got to work. The back four were strong. The return of a familiar, tried and tested centre back pairing clearly doing wonders for the confidence of the defence.

The midfield partnership of Taylor and Noble, which I was initially very sceptical of, was the engine of the team. They gave the Swansea midfield no time on the ball and more importantly kept Jonjo Shelvey, the puppet master of the Swansea midfield, out of the game. But as well as defending, Noble and Taylor also began most of the attacks with pinpoint passes to our wingers who were giving the Swansea defence, particularly Tiendalli, a torrid time.




Finally, and the most pleasing aspect of the whole game, was the return of a genuine goal threat from West Ham. Andy Carroll showed why we spent over £10 million on him. He was magnificent. He terrorised the two centre-backs with his aerial prowess and duped them with his incisive movement; a trait for which he is not given enough credit. The amount of times Andy Carroll was free of his man, most importantly for the set up of the first goal, is a testament to his footballing intelligence.

Not only was Andy Carroll a constant headache for the Swansea defence he opened up the space for Nolan to work and the captain did not disappoint. His finish for the opening goal was sublime and a timely reminder that he is still very much a valuable player if played in the correct way. At times this season, Nolan has looked passed his best. He has been dropped into holding midfield and into other roles that he is totally unfamiliar with and ill-suited to. But against Swansea, playing higher up the field just behind Carroll he was a constant threat and made valuable contributions.

But most importantly was the return of the belief around the Boleyn. The fans throughout the Swansea game, and the away support who went to the Bridge, were magnificent. The constant singing, cheering, and the booing of Chico Flores later on in the game, made me resent my decision to choose to watch the game on television rather than travel to the game.

The results against both Swansea and Chelsea have restored my confidence in the team. The return of a fully-fit squad has restored my faith in the idea that the blip in West Ham form was a result of a, quite frankly, ridiculous injury list. I genuinely believe that with a fully-fit team we have the quality to compete with, almost, anyone and will steer ourselves away from the relegation zone. As long as the team stays fit, good times lay ahead.

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