upton park | West Ham United Blog

Promotion chasing West Ham United were left deluded last night as Middlesbrough’s Tony Mowbray felt his side lay bare the Hammers’ fans delusion of grandeur. The irons were held to a fourth draw in a row. The Upton Park crowd are none too pleased with their team’s performance.

Middlesbrough manage to stifle West Ham’s advances for the first sixty minutes of the match until Abdoulaye Faye broke the deadlock with a neat header into the visitor’s net. This was Faye’s first goal for the Hammers but the home side’s joy was to be short lived as Middlesbrough substitute Bart Ogbeche levelled the scores late into the match on with an awesome solo goal.

This draw has now left Allardyce’s side outside the automatic promotion places and Middlesbrough boss Mowbray pointed out that the Upton Park fans’ lofty opinion of their club maybe counting against them:

“I thought our team came and did what was expected. It was our prerogative to come here and make life difficult for them; to see if we could create some anxiety in the stadium,” Mowbray said.

“I think we did that. The crowd get frustrated, every bad pass, every interception, there’s a groan.

“I think the expectation of the fan base is they should be in the Premier League. They see it almost as an insult that they’re playing their football in the Championship.”

A few Tweets of the week seemed to sum up how Upton Park feel about the situation:

We were shocking! Big Sam is going to cost us promotion and the club with his tactics, formations and players – @joebarr1973

Five draws in a row is unacceptable. Allardyce got the substitutions completely wrong. Bringing on Carew instead of Baldock was madness – @JeganWHU

We lacked creativity, flair, width and guile. I don’t know why Sam doesn’t give Lansbury and Morrison a chance. We were really poor on Tuesday night – @KwamsMoriarty

We cannot be happy after a fourth straight draw. I am still trying to get over another shocking home performance where Maynard and Cole go of to be replaced by an out of form Collison and the snail Carew. What is Big Sam thinking? We could be out of the automatic promotion race by Saturday evening – @stevetiley47

Sack Sam now, that performance was shocking. The football is absolutely dire – @JimboNorwood

The tactical substitutions at 1-0 were huge mistakes. West Ham need offensive coaching with nice passing instead of long balls – @FrencHammer

I think Big Sam has got to teach the players one-touch football at speed, not long punt football. Bring back Zola, at least we passed the ball then – @prolaz22

West Ham are sinking into the quagmire of the play-offs. If they do they will not make it to the final – @Apisadmirer

We have to earn the right to go up and we just haven’t done that this season… Us supporters turn up and know exactly what we’re gonna get – @louisb91

We were not good enough again but I can’t understand the ‘Sack Allardyce’ movement. It is possible to play 4-5-1 well you know. Our players just are not good enough – @bab_whu

Stats:

West Ham (4-2-3-1): Green; McCartney, Faye, Collins O’Brien; Tomkins, Noble; Maynard (Collison 71); Taylor, Nolan (Baldock 87); Cole (Carew 71). Subs: Lansbury, Morrison.

Middlesbrough(4-3-3): Steele; Bennett, Bates, Hines, Hoyte; Smallwood (Martin 80), Thomson (Ogbeche 80), Bailey; Emnes (Zemmama 76), Jutkiewicz, Hammill. Subs: Arca, McMahon

Referee: S Mathieson (Cheshire)

Millwall are sick as parrots after being defeated by the Hammers on Saturday. And after the hammer’s captain Kevin Nolan being sent off after just nine minutes after a rather crude tackle on Jack Smith, Millwall must be even sicker.

They basically had the hammers at their mercy with West Ham down to ten men. But it wasn’t to be, was it? Millwall desperately needed the points and West Ham needed them too for an extra cushion at the top of the table.

People thought that Millwall would have stepped up to the plate and brought the game to the irons but West Ham managed to stretch the dockers wide and bring the game to them via the flanks.

It may be true that the winning goal that sealed the deal for the irons should have been disallowed for a foul on Millwall’s keeper Forde, but hey, i’m not complaining and that’s football, isn’t it? You win some and you lose some!

Sam Allardyce, who claimed Nolan’s dismissal was harsh, said: “I think this may be a defining moment. It was a result we deserved and we managed the disappointment of Kevin going off the field. “I am upset because it could have spoiled the game. It’s not the worst tackle in the game and if they are going to keep doing that, we will see 10 versus 11 and nobody wants that.

All we can say is that a great game was had by all and there was no bloodshed either, not even off the pitch.

Check out the video below showing the Hammer’s reaction to the second goal.