It was a thriller at Upton Park yesterday afternoon as all the Saints could do was watch as West Ham went marching on! The match started off very well for the Southampton boys as they quickly had the Hammers on the back foot. They wanted to show that they were “up for it” and that they were no “pushovers”.
Goals came from a brace by Mark Noble, one from captain Kevin Nolan, with the fourth being picked up by Maiga on 87 minutes to punish the sloppy defence of Nigel Adkins’ team. A team which, by the way, has ended up with the worst defending in the Prem despite forking out £33million this summer – ouch! Adam Lallana did manage to pull one back for the visitors but it didn’t look like inspiring the Saints to keep going and scoring more goals.
The first half, to be honest, was one of the most miserable I’ve seen this season and it looked like the typical match where Southampton were going to nick a late goal and finish up on a pitiful 0-1 score-line. It was not to be however as large Sam must have had a word in each of his boys’ ears and told them to turn on the style.
The second half saw the Hammers pulling on the goal scoring boots and putting on a show for the fans. It’s an encouraging start to the season for Sam’s boys and we could say that the Hammers are the best performing of the three teams that have been promoted. Let’s hope we can keep it up!
Big Sam had this to say after the final whistle:
“It was a lacklustre performance”. “The players took a bit of criticism at half-time. We had to up the tempo and show the sort of desire we have done before this season. We came out and put it right”.
West Ham were indeed a different team after the break at half time as they showed the boss that his ethos of quality passing of the ball along with a high delivery. Benayoun should flashes of his past magic and that can only be a good sign. He’ll certainly be filling Vaz Té’s boots while he’s sidelined for three months following surgery to his shoulder.
‘It was a fantastic victory,’ said a euphoric Allardyce after the game. ‘To have 14 points at this stage is terrific.’
It was a bit of an amazing match – a first half reminiscent of some dire Npower League matches and then Bamn! A second half to take your hat off to. Great job lads and well done. 14 points in the bag so far, let’s see if we can keep them coming!
About Stevo
Great game, shame about the first half, it was pants! lol