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West Ham To Face Tangerines At Wembley

May 10, 2012 By Iron Bobby Leave a Comment

After the 2-2 draw with Birmingham last night, Blackpool have made it to the play-off final at Wembley on May 19th.

Personally I would have preferred Blackpool over Birmingham as we have a very good record against them recently, with two emphatic victories in the league over them this season.

Leading 1-0 from Friday night’s first leg, the Tangerines looked to have ended the tie with two goals just a few minutes either side of half-time from Stephen Dobbie and Matt Phillips. Both goals were relatively scruffy but there were no complaints from Blackpool.

However it looked like Birmingham had not read the script and responded with two goals of their own, one from Zigic and another from Curtis Davies who looked to atone for his own goal in the first leg.

Blackpool hung on though and won the tie 3-2 on aggregate.

So off to Wembley now where they face the mighty Hammers! I am pleased with this outcome as Birmingham have been a bit of a bogey team, however our form of late has been excellent and the team really look to be gelling at the right time!

What do you think?

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West Ham Going To Wem-Ber-Ley

May 8, 2012 By Iron Bobby Leave a Comment

West Ham booked their place in the Championship Play-off final at Wembley on May 19th after a 5-0 aggregate thrashing of Cardiff City.

After Malky Mackay’s recent comments about 2-0 being a very dangerous score line for West Ham, it turned out to be the platform for a great victory with The Hammers running out 3-0 winners in front of a packed house at The Boleyn, which was watched by former stars Trevor Brooking, Martin Peters, Tony Gale, Tony Cottee and celebrity fan Russell Brand to name but a few.

West Ham haven’t been to Wembley for 31 years so it could have been a nervy affair , but after a bright start from Cardiff and a possible penalty turned down it was The Hammers who took the lead in the 15th minute, Kevin Nolan heading in from a yard out after another wonderful corner from our set piece expert Matt Taylor.

After that it was one way traffic with Cardiff resigned to defeat being 3-0 down and needing to score 3 goals against an inform West Ham team. Just a few minutes after the first goal we nearly scored again, with two-goal hero from the first leg Jack Collison sending in a lovely cross which Gary O’Neil connected a volley with which hit the bar.

O’Neil then hit a beautiful curling shot from outside the box after a cutback from Vaz Te, which forced a fantastic save from Cardiff keeper Marshall who pulled off some great saves over the two legs.

Just before the break though West Ham double their lead in style from the in-form Ricardo Vaz Te who was played into the box and hit an unstoppable powerful strike across the keeper into the roof of the net. It was celebration time for The Irons!

Second half the game lost a bit of it’s energy and fluidity, not surprising as the tie was well and truly over, however Nicky Maynard managed to have the final say with a beautiful strike into the top corner after being played into the box by Henri Lansbury.

Only down side to a perfect day was Jack Collison injuring his shoulder, which I believe popped out and then popped back in again after a challenge near Cardiff’s corner flag. Let’s hope he is OK for the final as he has been in great touch for us recently.

The crowd thoroughly enjoyed this game, including me, and the bellows of “We’re going to Wembley” are still ringing in my ears this morning!

COYI!!!!

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Collison Double Downs Cardiff

May 4, 2012 By Iron Bobby Leave a Comment

Jack Collison upset his fellow countrymen last night with both goals in the two nil win for West Ham.

Collison was all smiles last night after giving The Hammers a great away result, thus putting Sam Allardyce’s men in a superb position for the second leg at 4pm on Monday 7th at The Boleyn.

The first of his goals came in the 8th minute when Ricardo Vaz Te cut back from a ball over the top of the defence, Collison’s strike was saved but the midfielder followed up and headed in from close range. He added his second shortly before half time with a sweet strike from outside the box following a corner, it took a deflection from a Cardiff players head but we don’t care about that!

Speaking to WHUFC.com:

“The first one I think I did my hardest to miss it, to be honest! It was a great ball from Vaz [Ricardo Vaz Te] and he put it on a plate for me. I’ve hit the keeper and luckily it has bounced out for me and I’ve managed to knock it in.

“The second one, it has bounced out to me and Matty [Taylor] was in my ear telling me to shoot so I thought ‘Why not?’ and I caught it quite sweet. It took a little deflection but I think it was going in anyway!

“They all count and it’s great to get the goals, but like I said it was a real team performance.”

So we are in the driving seat ahead of the second leg but we know all about counting chickens before they hatch, however our home form has picked up of late so unless we self destruct we should have enough about us to finish the job and have a nice day out at Wembley! COYI!

 

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Cardiff v West Ham Preview

May 3, 2012 By Iron Bobby Leave a Comment

Tonight West Ham travel to Cardiff for the first leg of our promotion place play-off.

There is no injury news for Cardiff so they look to be able to select their starting eleven from a fully fit squad. Four unspecified players took knocks against Crystal Palace on the final day of the season, but are all expected to be back in contention for a place against The Hammers.

Cardiff have been beaten only once in their last 13 matches, and are looking to reach Wembley for a second time this season, having lost on penalties to Liverpool in the Carling Cup final.

The Welsh side are also looking to end their play-off nightmare having been beaten by Reading in last years semi-final and the year before lost to Blackpool in the final.

Good news for West Ham though is that we have a fully fit squad to choose from. Nolan, O’Neil and Tompkins all took knocks against Hull on Saturday, but have all been passed fit for our most important game of the season to date.

Big Sam substituted both Ricardo Vaz Te – who was looking tired to me – and Carlton Cole early into the second half in our game against Hull with one eye being on the play-off’s.

So the nerve jangling play-off’s begin tonight and even though we didn’t go up automatically, it would still be nice to win at Wembley in front of  a 90,000 strong crowd. COYI!

 

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Hurst Backing Hammers In Playoffs

April 30, 2012 By Iron Bobby Leave a Comment

West Ham & England legend Sir Geoff Hurst is backing his old club The Hammers to do the business in the upcoming play-off’s for promotion to the land flowing with milk and honey that is also known as The Premiership.

He said: “It was tinged with disappointment that they didn’t go up automatically when it looked like they were going to do, but they are still in with a shout, and a very strong shout.

“They have got to win three more games. They didn’t finish the season too badly, particularly at home, where results had been poor at times.

“The away record is some kind of record for the club, but they have lost a couple of games at home. But they won convincingly at home, 6-0, a couple of games ago and in terms of form coming into the play-off games, the form is pretty good.

“It’s going to be tough. They are playing Cardiff, who gave Liverpool a game in the Carling Cup final, but they are still there. They are still in with a shout with a couple of games home and a final at Wembley to fight for.”

Lets hope Sir Geoff is right and we will soon be back plying our trade in The Premiership.

Seeing as our away form is much better than our home form the first leg being at Cardiff could be an advantage, I am hoping we can go a long way to finishing the job there and not have to win at The Boleyn as we don’t seem to do too well against teams sitting backing and countering! COYI!

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