Watch Huth, #4

First of all, apologies for not writing as regularly as usual. I’ve been working on a new project which you can find at BoleynGround.com. It’s shaping up to be a historical photo archive of the Boleyn Ground and Upton Park, so if you’re sitting on any photos you’re particularly proud of, whatever era, please do send them in.

It was the news that Avram has been charged with his comments about the referee, Mike Jones, after our disappointing FA Cup clash with Stoke at the weekend, that woke me from my blogging slumber.

I recently wrote elsewhere that Slur Alex Ferguson needs to start showing more respect (in light of his outburst at the officials that took charge of their defeat to Chelsea). I still stand by those comments. United expect everything to go their way (Rooney elbow) and when it doesn’t (Chelsea away) they lose their rag.

The situation with Avram is very different. It is a well known fact that Avram Grant very rarely explodes into a sea of emotion, so well known that it’s become a matter of genuine frustration for many West Ham fans. It’s not in his character, it would seem, to make unqualified, unsubstantiated and and unreasonable criticism about the performance of a ref unless it was fully and wholly justified.

Against Stoke it was.

The performance by Mike Jones was as bias and incompetent as I’ve ever seen. Not that it excuses our own performance on the day, we were poor. It was a disgrace and a full on kick to the nethers for every West Ham fan (4,500) who had spent the money on tickets, petrol, mini-buses, coaches, trains…whatever means necessary to get there. Ruined entirely by a limp referee who undoubtedly was told to buck up his ideas by Pulis at half-time, after allowing our goal that many believed to be fair and others a handball.

There was no such doubt about the NFL style blocking tactic adopted for Stoke’s first goal (in fact everything about it was NFL – long throw & blockers). Mike Jones, it was blatant and you missed it.

There was no such doubt about Etherington’s dive. He cheated. Mike Jones, you fell for it (I wonder if Matty has paid back that £800K we loaned him to pay of debt?)

There was no such doubt about the intentional foul to haul Hitz out of the wall for their second goal. Mike Jones, it was clear as day and you missed it.

There was no such doubt about the rugby tackle on Tomkins in the Stoke penalty area. Mike Jones, there are no more words.

We were rubbish but Avram, and every fan up there, is fully justified to believe that after that anonymous performance, Mike Jones you’ve cost us a place in the FA Cup semi-final.

But of course it’s superb to see a new underdog in the semi-final. It’s great that Stoke, a team of such footballing pedigree, beauty and honesty, have reached this stage of the competition.

So, how would I plead if I was Avram? Personally it’s about time that referees were accountable for their behaviour. And, if Avram decides to give the FA both barrels, I’d be fully behind it. Something needs to change. Or we’ll see more arrogant refereeing displays as they’re fully in the knowledge that none of their decisions will come under full and proper scrutiny by anyone other than the fans…and we all know we mean nothing to the FA. “You all need to show more respect”

Give us a reason to.

So briefly, here’s my post match interview with Spector

To our new owners
Focus on the task at hand and the next 7 games. Hold those thoughts of the Olympic Stadium, hold back on laying off staff and threats of wage cuts.
Hold back on letting the world and his dog know of the state the club is in because lest we forget, “negativity breeds negativity”

To the manager
You have a talented squad from which to choose your XI players. Just keep it simple, play players in their favoured positions and let them show us why they should be pulling on the Claret and Blue of West Ham United.

To our players
Play like your livelihoods depended on winning every game until the end of the season because quite frankly, with SuGo in charge, THEY DO

To our captain
Play and SOUND like one. It seems clear to the supporters that you have not one, but both eyes on bigger goals. But unless you concentrate on the task at hand, like the rest of us over the summer you’ll have both eyes on the telly

To young master Tomkins
Get back on the pitch and put the Wolves game behind you. Show again what a talented and promising footballer you are.

To the ball boys on Saturday
Take along a large tub of vaseline and apply liberally each time you pass the ball, politely, to Mr Delap (he’s the one with satellite dishes in place of ears)

To the supporters
If the players had any doubts about the passion us supporters have for our club, they know now! We’ve said our piece, the players and owners have said theirs. Tuesday is now history.
Supporters; we know our job and no offence SuGo but we don’t need paper clappers or kids for a quid to play our part. If we do go a goal down, don’t get on the players’ backs, just crank up the volume ala Villa Park 1991 (younger supporters ask your Dad’s!)

See you all Saturday and COME ON YOU IRONS!!

I’ve put together a slightly different comparison this time around, highlighting how we fared in the exact same fixtures played this year compared to last:

Seaon 08/09 fixtures compared to 09/10

So from that, a quick few summary points:

- We have scored 9 more goals compared to last year
- But, conceded 6 more

- We earned 5 more points in the corresponding fixtures last year.
- We have seen the same results against Spurs, Blackburn, Liverpool, Man City and Everton
- Last year we beat Wigan, Fulham, Stoke and Sunderland, whereas this year we only managed 2 points from the same fixtures.
- We have improved on the Arsenal, Villa and Hull results compared to last year.

I produce these stats table to simply put the data out there and hopefully make it easier to interpret. My opinion on the whole lot is quite simply this…our urgency to secure the services of a new striker during the summer has clearly paid off. We’ve scored significantly more goals. However…it is obviously been at detriment to our defence (selling Collins was a massive mistake).

I am however confident that once our defence settles into the same four each week for the best part, we will soon see a climb up the table. Although our goal difference is actually better this year we are shipping goals like there’s no tomorrow. Sort that, and we’ve got the makings of a side that can still achieve something this year.

Love too know your comments

IRONS

Sam

I’ve been battling with whether or not we should sell him and I’m sure many of you are still unsure. On one hand we have a top class goalscorer and it would seem silly to sell him considering that’s exactly what we are missing at the minute (the Sp*rs game made that all the more evident). On the other hand, he has never played a full season for us and is a liability on the injury front.

Stoke’s manager Tony Pulis has been reported of saying that Ashton’s injury record will not put him of signing him for £5m, the same article from the Daily Mail is saying that he is definitely leaving pending us finding a replacement. Make of that what you will. But it does beg the question, “why would Pulis be happy to resk forking out £5m, yet we seem happy to let him go”.

Essentially it’s a gamble on both teams parts and I for one do not want to get to the mid point of next season and find that our gamble of letting him go has severly backfired and that he his banging in the goals for Stoke.

Anyways, I figured a half decent way to get a rough idea of what everyone else is feeling is to roll out a poll…please vote below, and I’m also looking forward to reading your comments – Stoke fans, would you actually be happy with the risk of bringing Ashton’s injury record on board?

Even now I don’t know what I would vote.

[poll:4]

IRONS

Sam

Stoke v West Ham Free Live Streams

It seems like each week I am saying that it’s another massive game, but this is one of the games that we need to be looking at to take three points from. I’ve not been particularly good with my predictions this year, but I am going for a 1-0 West Ham win today, but it will be close!

IRONS

Sam