West Ham came flying out of the blocks last night in their Capital One Cup 3rd round tie against Premier League newcomers Cardiff City with two goals in the opening eight minutes of the match.
In true West Ham fashion though, the game ended up being a much tighter affair than it should have been with the Hammer’s eventually triumphing 3-2 when it looked like extra time was on the cards.
The game had barely got underway when Matt Jarvis slid a ball through to the ever improving Ravel Morrison, who controlled the ball, cut inside and fired past Cardiff keeper Joe Lewis to make it 1-0 with just 19 seconds on the timer!
What an incredible start to the match that was with Morrison scoring his third goal in only his fourth start on what was Sam Allardyce’s 100th match in charge of our boys.
West Ham fans were still up and singing over the first goal when Matt Jarvis added a second, admittedly there was some luck involved in this one as his blocked shot rebounded back off himself into the net, but who cares we deserve some luck!
The build up for the goal was nice with Morrison spinning his marker and popping a ball out wide for Maiga to do the first thing he has done right all season and provide a first time pass for Jarvis who finished the move with the net rustling.
West Ham dominated the rest of the half and should have been out of sight with golden opportunities for Ricardo Vaz Te, Modibo Maiga, James Collins and Jack Collison all spurned.
Then on the stroke of half time, Cardiff with literally their first decent attack of the match managed to get Noone on the ball who unleashed a 20 yard curler straight into the top corner to give Cardiff a totally undeserved lifeline.
Second Half
Cardiff came out in the second half rejuvenated by their late goal in the first half and were doing everything to get back into the match with Spanish keeper Adrian called upon several times to keep the visitors at bay.
Their equalizer came in the 76th minute when QPR wannabe Peter Odemwingie tapped in from close range to level the scores 2-2 in a game which should have been dead and buried before half time.
However, there was still time for some late drama when want away striker Ricardo Vaz Te rose above the Cardiff defence to nod home Jack Collisons cross.
West Ham now march on into the 4th round and will be looking to show the same kind of form they did in the first half against Hull City this weekend.
About Iron Bobby
Great to win and a number of positives came from the game. These extra games won’t help us. Saturday is a much sterner test. And like, Sibbo, i’m sure we will get back to the same old tactic.
back to long ball saturday