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Ex Toon Nolan puts Newcastle to the sword

November 12, 2012 By Stevo 2 Comments

kevin nolan before the newcastle vs west ham game

It was up to ex Toon and West Ham’s captain fantastic Kevin Nolan to put his old club to the sword at St James’ Park this weekend where the Irons beat newcastle by a single goal to nil thus firing the East end club into sixth position.

It was an emotional return for the ex Newcastle player where he kept his emotions in check and refused to celebrate the goal which gave his team the victory. According to Sam Allardyce, Nolan has been the best signing West Ham has made under him when he joined them at the start of last year for just £5Million.

That 37th minute strike from Kevin Nolan earned the Hammers a sixth league table position and Allardyce is over the moon.

Kevin Nolan admitted after the match:

“It was a perfect scenario for me to score. It was emotional.

“But I was never going to celebrate scoring here. I never will.

“That was down to the support I got when I was at Newcastle. But this was a great result for us.”

Kevin Nolan had a great game alongside strike partner Andy Carroll and Allardyce has hailed his strike pair. Nolan went back to St James’ Park to haunt the Toons and bagged his fifth goal of the season. The pair worked well in unison and caused Alan Pardew’s men all sorts of problems up front.

Newcastle didn’t look like they had any interest in drawing the match let alone go for a win! They seemed to complacent and accepted the fact that they were one nil down. There were a few times where I thought the Hammers were slipping back into complacency, too. They soon sorted themselves out though and this win takes us up to sixth position. Liverpool did the league a favour yesterday by snatching a point from Chelsea from a Suarez equaliser. The ref didn’t see the nice shove Suarez gave a Chelsea defender to make way for the unstoppable header though 😉

Manchester City won and so did Manchester United with a win over Aston Villa. Man Utd were down 2 goals to nil before they decided to grow a brain and engage it on the pitch. Mexican star Chicharito knocked in two goals and tried to claim a third but was clearly going off target so the ref gave an own goal.

Allardyce was thrilled after the game at Tyneside and even more so as it has been a long 14 years without a win there.

After the match Sam Allardyce had this to say about his captain:

“Kevin’s relationship with Andy is such a good one that I don’t need to do a lot of coaching with the two of them.
If anything, they instinctively play off each other.
While Andy’s struggling to get a goal — and we’d like him to get one — Kevin’s scoring them, so we’re reaping the benefits of that relationship”.

This game has given all Hammer fans hope. We are gradually starting to mix it with the big guns and little by little Andy Carroll is starting to show the kind of form and spirit that Upton Park need. The partnership with captain Kevin Nolan is a good one and when you get two players like this with the telepathy they obviously have with each other then we have gold.

Let’s keep up the good work lads and COYI!

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Andy Carroll’s career saved by West Ham captain

November 11, 2012 By Stevo Leave a Comment

andy carroll and kevin nolan

Hammers captain Kevin Nolan has dramatically stated that he has helped save Andy Carroll’s football career. Nolan is hoping that the big man can silence the crowd at St James’ Park today where the Hammers take on Newcastle.

The two are great friends and most people remember that Carroll had to spend a 2 year spell away from football after being charged with assaulting a former girlfriend. Although the charges were later dropped, Carroll was also fined £1,000 for an assault charge at a newcastle nightclub.

Nolan was Newcastle’s captain at the time of the incidents and as part of the bail condition, Andy Carroll was ordered to live with Nolan. The West Ham captain remembers that the big man emerged as a great cook which was very handy while Nolan’s wife was in Liverpool!

Nolan said of the incident:

“At Newcastle, if something goes on, it gets exploded 10 times and with Andy, it was magnified 1,000 times.
He was on assault charges but that sort of died quite quickly afterwards and all the charges put up against him were suddenly dropped.
It was because he’s 6ft 5in, he’s got long hair, he stands out in a crowd. I knew he just had to keep himself out of those situations, and since then he’s learnt so much. He’s been to Liverpool where he lived on his own with his girlfriend.
There is a different lad standing there in that dressing room now. There’s a man there now who can look after himself. You’d have to ask Andy if I’ve had an influence on that, of course I’m going to say ‘yeah!”

Nolan had a terrific 2 and a half year spell at the Toons and scored 30 goals which made him a firm favourite with the fans. West Ham manager Sam Allardyce reckons that Nolan has been the best signing he’s made at West Ham and cannot for the life of him understand why he hasn’t received an England call-up. The Hammer fans are with Sam on this and he has been a truly awesome influence on the younger players.

Kevin Nolan revealed:

“All I’ll say is that I was born in an era where we’ve had probably the best midfielders England have ever had in terms of goal scoring.
It does hurt I haven’t got the call but it’s something I’ve got to live with — I’m a big boy.”

Today’s kick-off is at 15:00 and we want to see more of that Nolan experience and courage on the pitch today. If anyone can spur on Andy Carroll and the younger stars to awesomeness, it’s got to be Kevin Nolan! Good luck lads!

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Matt Jarvis eyeing England recall

November 5, 2012 By Iron Bobby 1 Comment

West Ham United winger Matt Jarvis is hoping his for and performances for the Hammers will earn him a recall to the England squad.

Jarvis, 26, moved to The Boleyn in August for a club record fee from Wolves, and has been impressive in his outings for West Ham.

England manager Roy Hodgson was at the game against Manchester City so would have seen Jarvis, Carroll, Noble and the forgotten man Kevin Nolan all put in good shifts against the current Premier League Champions.

Jarvis is looking to build on his one cap for England, which he gained in a 1-1 draw with Ghana under former manager Fabio Capello.

Jarvis said: Obviously, I just need to keep playing well for West Ham and see where that takes me. If I keep doing well then you never know.

I got one cap against Ghana so I’m always hungry to get more and I’ll be working extremely hard to give myself the best opportunity.

You’ve just got to be strong as a person and make sure that you’re working extremely hard day in, day out and you’ve still got the desire to go and show everyone what you can do and get yourself back in the squad.

If Jarvis can start picking out Andy Carroll on a regular basis and forge a really effective partnership with the big forward, then I am sure this won’t go unoticed by Mr Hodgson who could promote the duo from a club partnership to an international one.

 

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Hammers hold Man City to draw at Upton Park

November 4, 2012 By Stevo Leave a Comment

west ham vs manchester city 2012

 

It was stalemate yesterday afternoon at the Boleyn Ground where the Hammers snatched a point from League title holders Manchester City. The game ended in a nil nil draw in which West Ham’s boss Sam Allardyce punched the air with joy after the final whistle.

The Hammers played some nice football and we could have snatched all 3 points if Nolan and Carroll had hit the target. It was a great game in which the underdogs with their limited resources and budget took on the nouveau riche of the Premier League and played one on one with them.

Ok, the class of city shone through and with their deep pockets it was hardly surprising, was it? What impressed me though was that the Hammers learnt their lesson from the Wigan game in which they showed complacency. Our boys were up for this even if it meant being beaten 3 nil!

It was West ham’s solid defense which the lads from Manchester City couldn’t get past.City never really got into their groove and tempers were high between Mancini and Balotelli when the italian was substituted – so no news there, then 🙂

After Chelsea’s faux pas and Manchester United beating North Londoners Arsenal, City find themselves in third position with the Hammers at eighth. Incidentally it was Van Persie who stuck the boot in and gave the Mancs victory over his former club. A lot of Arsenal supporters were wondering why Andre Santos decided to shirt swap with Robin Van Persie at half time, nice one.

Just after four minutes and captain Nolan had the ball in the back of the City net but was adjudged to have been in an offside position. I saw the replay and it was ever so slight – might have even been a rizzla paper’s width. Let me know your thoughts on that one!

Then it was Mo Diame’s turn to get in front of goal. The guy from Senegal had a shot from the edge of the box but was blasted over the top of Joe Hart’s net. Yossi Benayoun is steadily improving and had a nice game as I’m sure you’ll agree. He came close with a nice side footed volley that hit the crossbar.

The big Andy Carroll wanted some action too and put his shot agonisingly close to Joe Hart’s left post. Had that one gone in, it would have given the Hammers wings to go the extra mile for sure.

Ex Hammer Carlos Tevez played well for his new side but was unable to provide the form that made the difference to the scoreline.

Jussi Jaaskelainen was never really bothered by the Manchester City attack although the Finn was guilty on one occasion of being a bit of a “butter fingers” that could have let them in the back door.

Man of the match was a sublime James Collins who showed the rest of the Hammers what can be achieved with a raw blood and guts performance. Collins limped off on 84 minutes with O’Neil coming on to relieve him of duty. This is exactly the type of performance we want from the Irons – COYI

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Allardyce: Fans Behind Carroll

November 2, 2012 By Iron Bobby 1 Comment

West Ham United manager Sam Allardyce has stated that the fans are well and truly in support behind striker Andy Carroll.

23-year-old Carroll has yet to see the back of the net bulge in his West Ham career, however Allardyce is convinced that Carroll’s bustling committed displays have the fans 100% behind him.

The fans at West Ham love committed players and they love players who give their all and I think Andy wears his heart on his sleeve, Allardyce said.

I think a part of Andy’s frustration has been the amount of times he seems to be fouled these days but doesn’t seem to get the free-kicks against him that he deserves.

He has to understand that’s probably always going to be the case but for him it’s not to get frustrated by that it’s about making runs in the right positions and just keep showing that commitment and eventually it will pay off for him and for us.

What I do think is that he’s not just a goal scorer. That’s 90% of his game. I think he’s an all-round frontman in terms of his hold-up play and his movement as well as his ability to score goals.

I don’t know why any fans would be on Carroll’s back after such a short time and surely it’s only a matter of time before the big man gets on the end of a wicked Matt Jarvis cross and sticks one in, lets hope he can start by delivering against our toughest opponents of the season so far, the visit of Champions Manchester City for a Premier League tie this Saturday!

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