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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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Wembley Glory In Sight As Hammers Beat Cardiff

May 7, 2012 By Stevo Leave a Comment

An awesome performance by West Ham today at Upton Park that left Cardiff beaten 5-0 on aggregate has put the Hammers within a whisker of Premiership glory.

At Cardiff they were beaten 2-0 and today the boys just finished them off in style with goals coming from Ricardo Vaz Té, skipper Kevin Nolan and Nicky Maynard. Jack Collison’s brace set this game up in Cardiff and West Ham have not disappointed their fans who are itching for Premier League action next season.

And skipper Nolan’s header after just 15 minutes virtually said goodbye to Cardiff’s hopes of ever being in this tie. Then Portuguese wonder kid Vaz Té doubled the Hammers advantage just before the break with some decent finishing inside the box. West Ham were on a roll and nothing was going to stop them now! The bubbles were freely flowing and Cardiff could sense it!

Just before the final whistle Nicky Maynard, not to be outdone by his fellow Hammers, fired a beauty into the top corner of the hapless Cardiff keeper.

The Hammers are now awaiting their rivals with Birmingham hosting Blackpool on Wednesday. Blackpool have a one goal advantage after a Birmingham own goal in the first leg of the tie.

Hammers boss Sam Allardyce had this say after the game:

“We’ve produced two outstanding performances. “We’ve got a massive opportunity now. Hopefully we can hold it together and produce a performance like we did today at Wembley.”

Jack Collison had to come off after dislocating his shoulder in the clash. His shoulder was “popped” back in but was taken to hospital as a precautionary measure. We have no news at the moment on his condition but it doesn’t look like at this stage that he’ll miss the final.

Great work by the boys, you’ve had us on the edge of our seats at times throughout the season but this tie with Cardiff has shown us all that we deserve to be back in the Premier League. What do you think?

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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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Leicester 1 – 2 West Ham

April 23, 2012 By Iron Bobby Leave a Comment

Winston Reid ScoringThe mighty Hammers have kept their hopes of automatic promotion alive from tonight with a 2-1 win at Leicester City.

Knowing anything less than a win would gift Southampton the second automatic promotion place, West Ham knew they had to do the business and were definitely in the mood.

It looked like it could be slipping away when Beckford popped up with a header in the first half for Leicester against the run of play.

If Leicester thought this would rock West Ham then they were wrong, because The Irons went straight on the attack again like they had been for much of that half and grabbed a well deserved equaliser through the unlikely source of Winston Reid within 5 minutes, who finished from close range from a delightful Matty Taylor cross, not sure where our forwards were but I was happy our Kiwi defender was to hand!

Carlton Cole was in a ding dong battle with the Leicester City defence and proved a real handful for them until he was substituted in the second half.

Into the second half and Leicester made some changes, probably concerned by how dominant West Ham were in the first half.

The changes didn’t work as West Ham were still on top and creating chances, and in the 58th minute one was finally taken with Jack Collison smashing home from outside the box with a lovely strike. Fortunately for us Collison was still on the pitch to score as Henri Lansbury was on the sidelines waiting to replace the Welshman.

Vaz Te set-up Collison again inside the box only for a defender to nip in and win the ball much to Vaz Te’s frustration who thought Jack should have been more aware.

Nolan then spurned a gift of a chance in the last minute and instead of playing the ball to Lansbury who had an open goal he went for glory and missed the best chance of the match. West Ham nearly paid for this as Leicester got a free kick in the 4th minute of injury time and pumped it into the box with Winston Reid nearly kicking the Tigers players head off and giving away a penalty, fortunately it came to nothing and West Hams slim chance of automatic promotion remains alive.

Vaz Te impressed me again though and looked very lively and if we do go into the play off’s then I think he could be the man to win it for us.

So another eventful West Ham game and a nervous final day of the season although Southampton remain in the box seat. COYI!

TEAMS:

Leicester City: Schmeichel, Peltier, Konchesky, Bamba, Morgan, Marshall, King, Drinkwater, Wellens, Beckford, Nugent
Subs: St.Ledger, Howard, Dyer, Waghorn, Vassell

West Ham United: Green, Demel, Taylor, Reid, Tomkins, Noble, Nolan, Collison, O’Neil, Vaz Te, Cole
Subs: Baldock, Faubert, Diop, Lansbury, Collins

 

 

 

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Hammers Promotion Dented By Reading

March 31, 2012 By Stevo Leave a Comment

West Ham’s promotion campaign took a nasty turn for the worse as the irons got “hammered” 2-4 by Reading at Upton Park this afternoon.

West Ham started off fine and went one nil up. Big Sam was happy and the fans were loving it. As the game went on though, it turned into a complete disaster for the claret and blues. The Royals thus take a nice 4 point lead over West Ham as the two battle it out for the second automatic promotion spot. Talk about squeaky bum from Sir Alex and Mancini as the two Manc clubs battle it out (Man City drew with Sunderland 3-3 btw), this is far worse. I can’t take it any more lads!

We’ve drawn the last five game and slipped out of the comfort zone and so it was nice to see Carlton Cole stick one in just before half time! Maybe we can add that this was probably the Irons’ best performance this season! What went wrong, then?

Totally against the run of play, Kaspars Gorkss equalised from a corner in the 44th minute and then, in first-half stoppage time, Noel Hunt fired Reading into an unlikely lead.

The second half got under way and Reading man Ian Harte added a third from a penalty kick and, although Irons’ Ricardo Vaz Te pulled a goal back, any hopes of a comeback or another “draw” were completely wiped out by a disputed fourth goal from Mikele Leigertwood just six minutes from time. By this time many Hammer fans just couldn’t bare to watch and started filing out.

League leaders Saints, who are sitting two points ahead of Reading in the table, have just lost 0-3 to Blackpool at Bloomfield Road, ouch!

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