[Archived] West Ham Versus Blackburn Rovers

[1864roverite]

West Ham versus Rovers Saturday 3pm Kick off 31st August 2008.

On Saturday (yes thats 3 Saturday K.O. 3pm games on the bounce), Rovers travel south to The Capital. The destination is Upton Park the home ground of West Ham United, or as they like to be known, The 'Ammers. Some of the traditionalists may know their ground to be called The Boleyn ground and indeed there is a famous bar nearby that bears the same name. However, although it sounds an attractive name for a hostelery, away fans are rarely welcomed at this pub as it the stronghold of some of more unsavoury characters that like to be associated with the club.

WHAM are a club that are simply associated with the World Cup winners of 1966 and in the main Sir Bobby Moore. Although through the early 70's and early 80's they had some of the classiest talent around on the pitch it was never enough to get them a League Championship. They do have some honours though, recently in 1999 they won the Intertoto Cup whilst in 1981 they won Div 2. In 1980 they won the FA Cup when Sir Trevor Brooking slipped and the ball went in off his head to secure the 1-0 win. They also won the play offs in 2005.

Famous players include Trevor Brooking, Alvin Martin, Frank Lampard Snr, Bobby Moore,Billy Bonds, Julian Dicks,Geoff Hurst, Martin Peters,Johnny Byrne,Phil Parkes, Bobby Barnes,Alan Devonshire,Paul Allen, Tony Cottee, Paolo Dicanio and an old Rovers favourite Ludek Miklosko, that keeper who performed so heroically in keeping the red scum out back in 1995.

Another famous player that has worn the shirt is none other than our new manager Paul Ince. If you dont remember it, Mr Ince caused uproar in the East End by wearing a Manure shirt before he even signed for the club and being photographed. Over the years as a player he has been as heckled as Robbie Savage gets on a weekly basis and was branded SCUM by the fans who once adored him. In those days he was on the pitch, I wonder just how the East End will take to him when he returns as an opposition manager in the dug out ?

West Ham proclaim to have the prestigious title of the hardest fans in football. In fact, the two gangs infamously associated with the club have a notorious reputation from the days of the 70's and 80's football hooligan reign. The Mile End Mob and Inter City Firm have both featured in films and WHAM supporters are the featured fans in Green Street. Over the years the hooligan element have have been portrayed as being trouble but at Ewood Park, I dont ever recall them giving us problems. In fact, I am certain that Blackburn itself ranks as one of the hardest places the ICF has ever come up against fight wise. One of the ex members quoted Mill Hill train station as being the scenes of one of ther biggest fight losses.

Players associated with the two clubs recently include none other than Craig Bellamy and the greediest Aussie of them all LUCASH Neill. All Rovers fans will have a warm word for Mr Bellamy as we rescued his eavering career in glorious style before seeing him depart for Liverppol. The same cannot and will not be said of Lucash. Our ex-captain left our club seeking a better challenge at a bigger club then promptly turned down Liverpool for the alleged £70,000 a week offered by the then Icelandic chairman. I am right in thinking that since he left, WHAM have never been above Rovers in the league NOR have they won any silverware or even breathed on reaching a semi final spot or achieved European football.

So then, what can Rovers expect down in East London ? Recent visits have seen Rovers score first and then come away with a loss. In fact we are the team that WHAM love to play becasue whenever they are on a losing run we always seem to oblige them with a gifted 3 points. Upton Park has been the ultimate in bogey grounds for Rovers. WHAM have played 2, winning 2-1 at home and getting battered at City at the weekend. They have sustained more injuries whilst it seems the pressure is well and truly on Mr Curbishley already. The board have, if reports are to be believed, accepted a bid for Anton Ferdinand and unless it falls through he will not be playing against us. Neither will Bellamy, Cole and Spears are major doubts, Ashton may play whilst at the back, a troubled Rob Green is in goal with the central defence made up of Davenport and Upson. They are light on players and have an influx of foreigners that just dont appear to be settling in. Never mind boys, Rovers are in town !!

A good mate of mine from my Navy Days is Eddie. A true 'Ammer who sits near to their current famous fan - Ray Winstone. I spoke to him over the weekend and gathered his thoughts on the game, our club and his and the future.

On WHAM....... he expects the club to get rid of Curbishley before Christmas. All is not well and it is well known that when the fans stamp their feet in Upton Park the manager bites the bullet. He says quite clearly, the club is badly run and has financial issues, hence why no major signings have been made and puts it down to Mssrs brown and the Icelandic guy paying high wages to players like Lucash ! His faith lies in WHAM's youth set up however, they have lost several of the youth set up who have all moved to other clubs becasue of a fall out in the youth set up.

On Rovers..... He admires our little old town team. How he wishes that his club could use Rovers as a role model. He states that Rovers screwed WHAM for the money for Bellamy and that by giving them Lucash we definately got the better deal. he ranks Lucash as one of the worst ever WHAM signings and cannot stand the thought of him being captain of his beloved team.

On the returning Paul Ince..... Always thought he had it in him to be a good mananger but now he returns to WHAM its gonna be a hate filled afternoon for him. He will not forgive and forget. He refuses to comment further.

On the retiring of the WHAM no6 shirt.... Pretty straightforward thinking on this one. We have never and will never have a player that is good enough to don this shirt. Nuff said !

On Sheff Utd and the Carlos Tevez affair...... Neil Warnock is a wa***r. I despise the efforts of the sheepsahgging chairman but at the same time believe they were hard done to. WHAM definately got lucky with the FA and all that.

On the Olympics.....been great for GB aint it. Well chuffed for the lot of them and aint it good to beat the Aussies and Germans in the medal table.

On the game itself.....I can see WHAM sneaking at least a point, it all depends on Ashton being fit. Rovers are a hard team to play against but it will all be about Ince on Saturday, who really cares about the crap on the park when he is in town ?

And a prediction.......2-1 WHAM or the alternative 2-0 defeat and AC sacked after the game.

For me, its death by radio on Saturday. I do hope that all the Rvers travelling Army have a safe trip. B aware of trouble on the trains and do not eat pie, eels and mash, it plays havoc with your guts....

[Rover9]

Thanks 1864roverite a very good preview on all accounts touching on many things which is always good to see in the build up to the match. I will be making not only my first trip to the home of the 'ammers but London itself so I can't wait on both accounts. I hope beyond hope that we register a first win in a long time down there especially after the terrible luck and decisions we have suffered in previous season's. More of the Everton stuff boys and less of the stuff shown against Hull then I think we will be ok

[colin]

Thanks 1864 Roverite,

Another excellent match preview. A really good read.

They've all been top-class for ages. Thanks.

[jim mk2]

Funny lot West Ham .... we either stuff em by a big score or lose miserably.

Nailed-on 2-0 defeat to make 1 win, 1 draw, 1 defeat and more than 1 supporter worrying about Ince and relegation.

[joey_big_nose]

Ususally I would be worried about this game. West ham have a decent team, with great balance up front in Ashton and Bellamy, and young players looking to make an impression.

However masses of injuries (including to Bellamy) and the board seemingly selling Ferdinand from under them means that we can appoach this with confidence - they could be all over the place both on and off the pitch.

Ashton is a great technical player but lacks pace on his own and losing Noble through suspension is brilliant as far as we are concerned.

A draw seems a decent shout. And as they are at home they will have to attack us a bit for their own fans which will open them up for us. I am looking forward to it!

A win is not out of the question.

[Rathbone Market]

I think you'll get a draw at our place. Major ructions behind the scenes and it looks like Curbishley is being hung out to dry by the board. Curbishley is taking a lot of stick and if we start badly the crowd will turn and that will be it. Real negtive vibe at present.

I'd say Blackburn are a team that West Ham fans 'like', relatively speaking anyway! The big thing that will be different this time is the return of Ince. He will get caned. Hopefully the atmosphere created by this will spur the team on...hope so anyway.

We currently have the creativity of a breeze block so I'm struggling to see how we'll score many. We also haven't kept a clean sheet in 14 (iirc).

Anyway, I'm going to go for 2-2.

[colin]

I'd say Blackburn are a team that West Ham fans 'like', relatively speaking anyway!

Cheers for that

[RevidgeBlue]

Does anyone know what our record is at Upton Park since returning to the top flight in 1992? I can't recall us winning there, couple of draws perhaps?

A real graveyard for us usually.

[American Rover12]

Really well done 1864roverite, a great read.

WHAM always seems to slip us up; the proverbial banana peel. Here's hoping we don't help them bounce back from their defeat this past week end. I'm predicting Roque to have a good game after shaking off the tiredness he had due to internationals and Peds to put it in 2. Ashton with one for them, 3-1 Rovers.

[Rovers in America]

For the Americans on here, just a heads up the game is on Fox Soccer Channel at 10am ET. I'll be watching this game before hitting the road for Albuquerque to make it to the TCU/New Mexico American College Football game at 6pm ET. Hopefully I'm rewarded by Blackburn and TCU wins.

[Presty On Tour]

Does anyone know what our record is at Upton Park since returning to the top flight in 1992? I can't recall us winning there, couple of draws perhaps?

A real graveyard for us usually.

I don't remember a single victory at Upton Park in the premiership, I'm finding it hard to find our last victory there on the net so it must of been years ago.

We won't have a better chance to turn them over this weekend imo. So many problems on and off the pitch and we need to make them pay. Ince will have a rough reception but if we can score and take control of the game, the ammers fans will turn their attention to their own gaffer, board, players etc and they could crumble.

Lucash will hopefully give us a penalty or two and get a red card. Might be worth a punt

[AussieinUk]

Does anyone know what our record is at Upton Park since returning to the top flight in 1992? I can't recall us winning there, couple of draws perhaps?

Rev, Here is the history head to head and everything based from the Boleyn Ground, Upton park.

92/93 - WHAM in Div 1

93/94 - Rovers bt WHAM 2-1 (April 27th)

94/95 - WHAM bt Rovers 2-0 (April 30th)

95/96 - WHAM draw w/ Rovers 1-1 (Oct 21st)

96/97 - WHAM bt Rovers 2-1 (Oct 26th)

97/98 - WHAM bt Rovers 2-1 (April 18th)

98/99 - WHAM bt Rovers 2-0 (Feb 27th)

99/00 - Rovers in Div 1

00/01 - Rovers in Div 1

01/02 - WHAM bt Rovers 2-0 (Feb 2nd)

02/03 - WHAM bt Rovers 2-1 (Feb 29th)

03/04 - WHAM in Div 1

04/05 - WHAM in Div 1

05/06 - WHAM bt Rovers 3-1 (Aug 13th)

06/07 - WHAM bt Rovers 2-1 (Oct 29th)

07/08 - WHAM bt Rovers 2-1 (March 15th)

So out of 11 meetings, we have drawn once and won, once... A true graveyard, as you put it.

EDIT: We also lost 4-2 in a FA cup round there too (28/1/06)

I don't remember a single victory at Upton Park in the premiership, I'm finding it hard to find our last victory there on the net so it must of been years ago.

April 27th 1994 was the last time at the Boleyn Ground, Upton park

[AussieinUk]

Oops, missed this - Nice review 1864!

My predicition is we will get stuffed 2-1, against the 'ammers.

[mickygray316]

are there any away pubs near the ground?

[philipl]

Good preview 1864.

We faced Everton away at just the right time and I fancy the trip to West Ham is perfectly timed as well.

Rovers to begin setting an awful lot of bad results to right with a 2-0 win in a feisty atmosphere.

[RoyRover]

We always seem to struggle against West Ham. Ince will no doubt get dog's abuse from the fans, so I would imagine he would love nothing more than to shove that back in their faces. West Ham seem o be going through some problems at the moment, with lots of injuries, poor form and Curbishly the bookies favourite to get sacked first. This could be the best time to play them. West Ham are one of those teams that I really hate and would love to finally beat. More over, I see every game now as a chance to put some distance between ourselves and Mr Bentley. With Spurs being away to Chelsea and staring at another defeat, I really hope that a win at West Ham, would sicken that little sod, as we cruise away from that mega club that he wanted to further himself at!

[tonyoz]

Sounds like everything is rosy at Upton Park:

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11096_4050993,00.html

[BuckyRover]

Paul Ince

"I looked at the fixtures when they came out and noticed straight away that West Ham away was the third game in. The trip to Upton Park was the one that stood out to me for some reason, although I can't think why."

Quality

[Mike Graham]

going to miss this one but may see some of the Rovers fans on the way down to London.

Going to Rugby league Cup Final instead to see Saints stuff Hull. Corporate in the Bobby Moore Suite at Wembley so lots of freebie booze and a nice meal.

Should I not be at Upton park for an overpriced southern softy larger and a crap pie to see Rovers win?

[Anti-Dingle-Brigade]

If we don't "do" West Ham now, we are never gonna get around this bogey curse. Who better to lead us to a first win in 189838383 games than Paul "West 'Ams prodigal son" Ince?

[Daremz]

The big thing that will be different this time is the return of Ince. He will get caned. Hopefully the atmosphere created by this will spur the team on...hope so anyway.

Exactly what I was hoping for. Nice preview by the way, always good to have the view of a WHAM-fanboy! My prediction is a rare victory @ Upton, 0-4.

[roversmum]

going to miss this one but may see some of the Rovers fans on the way down to London.

Going to Rugby league Cup Final instead to see Saints stuff Hull. Corporate in the Bobby Moore Suite at Wembley so lots of freebie booze and a nice meal.

Should I not be at Upton park for an overpriced southern softy larger and a crap pie to see Rovers win?

Fie upon you, pb, that you should yield to such temptation

[Bobby G]

Hope Dunn is back.

Havent thought this highly of him since he left us but I believe that to a degree being played further back under Hughes didnt use his strengths and that we have seen the David of old during the first 2 games of the season. Can he keep it up and not get injured though!?

[des]

does anyone know if its on tv anywhere in blackburn/pendle area. could you pm me

[RibbleValleyRover]

It is the commentary game on Radio 5 Live for those that have access to a radio.