[Archived] West Ham United V Brfc 3 - 1 Wham

[KimberleyBRFC]

I'm very surprised to hear people say that we were the better team in the first half and shocked to hear people say that it was all Rovers.

For fifteen minutes or so we were passing quickly and tackling well, and the game was end to end and quite entertaining.  However, from then on West Ham were by far the better team and should have gone into the break at atleast 1-1, maybe even 2 or 3-1 up.  Their midfield was just too quick and ours was static and hopeless - how many times did one of Reid and Savage just giuve the ball away with useless passing and control?

Well, that's how I saw it atleast.

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We were without a doubt the better team in the first half.. but Todd didn't look comfortable defending Harewood from kick off

[RevidgeBlue]

To be fair to Mokoena he has looked absolutely outstanding whenever playing a holding midfield role but has never looked at all comfortable playing centre back.

We need more cover in that position.

I didn't think Savage was as bad as a lot of people are making out but he is capable of a lot more. Still think he is some way away from peak fitness.

Emerton needs to be taken to one side and told he will be packing his bags if there isn't an immediate and drastic improvement on his "exertions" of the last 2 seasons. Meanwhile would give Gallagher another chance in that position.

Since Christmas Dickov seems to have had little to his game other than falling over looking for fouls, and constantly whinging at the referee. He can pack his bags now for me after Saturday's unbelievable stupidity.

I thought it was extremely strange that Bellamy was beset with injury after a close season off and if it is right about him needing injections at this stage it's very worrying. There was a throwaway comment in last week's LET that we had asked Newcastle for his medical records although it was stated it was "standard procedure"

Edited August 15, 2005 by RevidgeBlue

[Ste B]

That's typical at all away games.. us at the back make all the noise whilst the ones at the front sit looking pretty. As for West Ham fans i didn't hear much singing from them in the first half ) and i guarantee you they heard our burnley chant lol

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I guarantee they heard our EASY chant as well.. and we certainly heard theirs once we had thrown away our lead.

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

I will reserve judgement - let's not forget that we were missing Nelsen, Savage is still gaining match fitness, Bellamy is clearly not match fit, Reid is still coming to terms with the additional demands of playing centre in a four man midfield, and Kuqi has never played at this level before.

[John]

Yeah but the season has started.........dropping points now is just the same as dropping points when people are 'fully fit'.

We already have lost to a team who looked fairly average on the day but had players with pace and players who must of thought it was Xmas with our mistakes!

Edited August 15, 2005 by John

[greggyk]

I wouldnt get too down guys. There was enough for me in that first half performance that we could still have a decent season.

Just remember, we beat Wolves on first day of the season couple seasons back and we finished 15th. First day results mean nothing. I also remember when Millwall lost 6-0 at home to Rotheram 3 seasons back and they went on to have a good season just missing out on play-offs while Rotheram struggled near the bottom

[speeeeeeedie]

I've not been at a computer all weekend so I come on here to have a look at opinions and I swear I've gone back in time to last season. 7 days ago it was all go go go; we had 2 new strikers and even pundits were tipping us to be this year's Everton. One game in and we are now last season's BRFC. The downbeat Rovers fan returns. What's wrong folks? We've played one game. From all accounts we were terrible and too many players had off days, it happens. The Hammers were bouyant; first time back in the top flight, 30,000+ on hand, willing workers and a couple of lucky breaks/crap play gave them a lead. They are a Premiership team regardless of how they got there (I believe we finished 6th when we went up) give any Prem team a two goal advantage at home and they are all good enough to keep it.

Despite all the summer expectation we are still mediocre. We are better than last season and we will do alright, but to start topics on going down and slagging everyone and everything in mid-August is a bit premature.

As for the players and some of the comments; we have some very bitter people posting. So here are my player ratings in no particular order based on posts alone, presumably made as a result of watching them play.

Emerton. 0.8. Yes, he's been inconsistent but what makes people think that he will turn into super winger over a summer?

Todd. -4. Now he's old and slow, but last week he was England class.

Kuqi. 0. He was our new foil, Dickov with height and strength. No! He's turned into a complete cart horse.

MGP. 1. The Scandanavian saviour or a lazy waster who can't cross? You decide, depending on the result.

Matteo. 5. He is still crap.

Mokoena. -15. The axe, best tackler in the league. I forgot, he cannot play at the back anymore. Is he really that bad? £300,000 wasted? Come on.

Bellamy. 6. Not fit, so he's excused; by some.

Savage. 2.1. No one has really seen him as he has been injured for the mostpart, so when we lose he turns into that n*b who plays for Birmingham.

Reid. 4. Our goalscoring midfielder is now a liability.

Dickov. -200. He is and always will be an annoying player. Doesn't make us look good at all. In agreement with most comments on him.

Neill. 8. *Star Man* It is definitely backward when people are saying he plays well, as he used to be our biggest scapegoat (I used to have a go no end, but he did pick it up when Sparky came).

Gresko. 4. Can's displace Matteo even after being out for a full season.

Amourso. -2. He gets a battering and he's not even fit.

Gallagher. 7. Emerton's replacement, if you are to believe some. Those same people will be quick to call him not up to it when he does play.

I'm surprised no one has had a go at Friedel for letting 3 in, saying he's now past it.

Have I missed anoyne out? It's early doors the negativity is not pleasant.

[jobo380]

I watched the game on the football first on sky which i thought gave me quite a good outlook on the game,

we started well and showed good passing and tempo but this soon slowed down and thats when wh started to get into the game.

bellamy and kuqi i think played well but it also seemed that sometimes kuqi would get caught up in other bits of play and get distracted also i think he seemed a bit in awe of bellamy and so didnt run with the ball much but simply tried to quickly pass, which didnt work and lost the ball a lot.

we have a bad boy image which i dont like and before this game i thought was unfair but with the way that savage, mokoena and dickov conducted themselves was a times disgusting. savage taking down harewood when he started running on the wing was out of order.

hopefully when nelsen gets back and bellamy gains his fitness we will be better.

[USABlue]

This is taken for BBC.

Blackburn boss Mark Hughes:

"At this level you need eight, nine or 10 players playing well to get results. We didn't have anything like that, which is why we got beaten. That won't happen again."

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Now that is a reaction from the Boss I like. I will be watching the game with interest today. It is of interest to me the comments about Bellamy.

When we signed him I had made reference to the fact that we don't have anyone clever or skilfull enough to make use of his pace, it sounds from some of the posts I have read that this may be the case.

Edited August 15, 2005 by USABlue

[greggyk]

also, i was watchin Mokoena's interview on Rovers World and his attitude was fantastic. He had a woeful game but im glad he didnt feel sorry for himself.

He was saying things like we owe the fans a good performance on saturday and that we MUST win

Of course saying it is a lot easier than actually going out and doing the business

[DanLad]

What was Emerton doing on the left hand side for his back pass?

None of our wide midfielders ever look comfortable on the 'opposite' wing. It just makes us more vulnerable defensively as the players are not defending naturally and they offer less going forward than normal, too.

[thenodrog]

What was Emerton doing on the left hand side for his back pass?

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They had been only just been swapped over presumably in an attempt to freshen the attack up a bit.

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

Woe, woe, woe is me.

Lets put all this in perspective.

If we were playing this game in the FA Cup last season (when West Ham were still 1st Division) - would anyone have seen this as an easy win. I wouldn't - and yet many people on here seem to think that we should win easily at these places.

West Ham will probably be relegated - but along the way they will beat better teams than Rovers.

It is disappointing - but only one game. As they saying goes - goals change matches - we had opportunites to go 2-0 up, and also 2-1 up - which would have made it a different match. They didn't go in - but next week who knows ?

The team has weaknesses - but so does every team in the premiership.

[CAPT KAYOS]

They had been only just been swapped over presumably in an attempt to freshen the attack up a bit.

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Something we constantly do which never works!!

DanLad Posted Yesterday, 18:11

  What was Emerton doing on the left hand side for his back pass?

DanLad - Think the question you should be asking 'is what the hell is he doing in our side never mind on the pitch?

[Nayef]

I had just been snorkelling for half an hour when I got a text from my mate about Rovers going 1-0 up. Then my phone died.

What a rude shock I got on Sunday. Did we lose 3-1 to West Ham?

Did Mark Hughes think Bellamy would be the only signing he would need. West Ham themselves were quite busy with bringing in new faces. Oh well, time to hit the beach again.

Man, it's so peaceful here!

Tomorrow I'll have forgotten we lost our opening game. At least we're not in the relegation zone!

[Presty On Tour]

what a disaster on sat fairplay!!

had a well nice time in magaluf, seen the team in action at the new swansea city stadium before i went and we looked immense, cant believe we lost to west ham!!

1.0 up and we fell apart, i hope we can put things right this sat, bring in jansen if he is fit!!!

[pick32]

will make up for it when westham come to ewood a 4-0 stuffin

[blue phil]

I had just been snorkelling for half an hour when I got a text from my mate about Rovers going 1-0 up. Then my phone died.

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Drowned presumably...

[Flopsy]

[Rovermatt]

I was exiled in France this week, but was able to pick up the highlights through a Sky box out there. Listening on 5 live and watching the subsequent footage, it is clear we fell apart-plain and simple. A loss against an average championship side like West Ham is totally unacceptable, especially when we were in control and gifted them the victory.

As said previously, we need more signings. It's as simple as that. West Ham picked up Benayoun for example; one of the best players in La Liga last season. Bolton have just signed Nakata; an unfulfilled talent maybe, but a creative influence nonetheless. We looked stale, short on ideas and our inability to create a proper amount of chances for our forwards is an extremely worrying state of affairs.

[BRFC4EVA]

Funny the difference a week makes. Beat spuds and it will be talk of champions league . Get a grip ffs everyone!!

[Eddie]

That's how it always works. We all have knee jerk reactions usually, but because this was the season opener against a team we would like to beat the performance had an extra affect.

[James No. 7]

Ah, the season starts and we're back to knee jerk reactions. This place just isn't the same without them. So at the risk of sounding like Jim, the silver lining from today is a note of realism - to all those predicting a finish in about 6th for us, can I have a pint of what you're drinking please. It ain't going to happen. We've made two signings over the summer, both an improvement on what we had before. So keep the good performances/players from last season, add Kuqi and Bellamy and we'll finish 3 or 4 places higher. Lose a few key players/performances and we'll finish a bit lower. A relegation fight isn't out of the picture.

Ah, two interesting comments there. The first certainly holds true for this season.

Your second comment is a funny side note. Not picking on you though, because I did think we couldn't and shouldn't play a 4-4-2. :ph34r:

Anyway, I decided to bump this topic because it is so similar to the Portsmouth thread.

And because I haven't been able to find that other thread where some user with very few posts jumped straight onto the relegation bandwagon.

[Neil Weaver]

Well found James! And what a fine quote - think I was a year early with it , same is true today I reckon. Maybe I'm just a stick-in-the-mud.

[CAPT KAYOS]

Well found James! And what a fine quote - think I was a year early with it , same is true today I reckon. Maybe I'm just a stick-in-the-mud.

Don't think so Neil, today was so different on many levels.

It was bad, at least at Wham we scored and where arguably the better team in the first half.

Interesting aspect though - one man off last season , two this how many for the opening game next season ( (in the Championship)??