[Archived] West Ham United - Fa Cup 5Th Round

[Exiled in Toronto]

No matter what you think of the line up, 20 mins in we were the better team and deservedly ahead. To win against much better teams you need things to go your way and, most importantly, a good game from your keeper. The two WHU goals punctured the balloon completely. I've never rated Steele as anything better than average, he'll loseus as many games as he keeps us in, which isn't good enough for promotion next year. His later saves were irrelevant, he'd already lost us the game. Replacing him is top priority for me.

Pretty clear which players need to go, but well done Lenihan, he didn't look out of place.

And fair do's to WHU, I thought they were light years ahead of where they were a couple of years ago. The game reminded me of the '69 City 5th Round match, a false dawn of hope and then getting taken apart by much better players.

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

You are grasping at straws now. Just admit Lambert ignored the paying public and chose a poor team without caring about the fans.

With all due credit to those that turned up - remind me what was the "home" gate ? Those that turned up for Liverpool last season were nowhere to be seen - sorry for those that turned up, but you can't entirely blame PL when a lot of the Blackburn public obviously don't care themselves about the FA Cup.

[LDRover]

A bemusing team selection to say the least but it's individual errors from Steele and Taylor that have undone us today. Then Taylor confounds his initial error with a ridiculous challenge in a nothing area of the pitch.

However, after that the way that some downed tools was shameful, particularly Akpan. Initially I was a big fan of his and thought he might be the leader we crave in the centre of the pitch but he did a disappearing act Lord Lucan would've been proud of today. He's seriously regressed over the past couple of months.

Henley was a boy among men and the amount of times he was caught out of position was shocking. Ward was seriously poor and Duffy was mugged off at will by West Ham's front line.

Winning the cup was never on but , to coin a phrase, we should have given it a right good go today - we didn't. I just hope Lambert has marked a few cards of the shirkers and bottlers today.

[JAL]

Thought Brown did well enough today, applauded off.

Was either him or Jackson, we can't pull one out of thin air.

Unbelievable !

If you did then Rovers have no future.

Cheers !

[donnermeat]

How many more chances does Henley need to impress? We need to get shut of him.

[garnersfags]

I find it strange that people are having a go at Henley who was being asked to push forward.....

I agree that he was being asked to do a lot but when WH broke and it was 2 on 3, despite 2 Rovers players going towards the man with the ball, Henley did the same, totally ignoring the man in space outside him. This happened more than once.

It was as if he was a forward, covering his errant full-back. It was probably the weakest individual example of poor play, after Taylor's career-ending rank stupidity.

Unfortunately, this will do nothing to help the 3 for 1 sales, and to all those saying 'why are we so passionate about how many tickets we sell', such a lack of understanding of the benefits of a full stadium compared to a 1/3 full stadium is startling!

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

We were well beaten by a much better side...what the hell can you do?

What worries me more is what reaction from the players will we now get after today's tubbing when we are looking over our shoulders at the wrong end of the table.

Today can't breed confidence in any way,shape or form.

[Speedie Dived]

Unbelievable !

If you did then Rovers have no future.

Cheers !

No problem

[EWOODACE1]

Get a grip. You only agree to pay entrance money to football matches if the manager picks your preferred line up?

Erm yes. I don't pay to watch a team nil and void of any ideas and absolutely no composure on the ball. If your happy with today then fair play to you but I for one didn't like that at all.

On a side note it's not about the line up i want. It's about being at the very minimum a competitive team

[Commondore]

A bemusing team selection to say the least but it's individual errors from Steele and Taylor that have undone us today. Then Taylor confounds his initial error with a ridiculous challenge in a nothing area of the pitch.

However, after that the way that some downed tools was shameful, particularly Akpan. Initially I was a big fan of his and thought he might be the leader we crave in the centre of the pitch but he did a disappearing act Lord Lucan would've been proud of today. He's seriously regressed over the past couple of months.

Henley was a boy among men and the amount of times he was caught out of position was shocking. Ward was seriously poor and Duffy was mugged off at will by West Ham's front line.

Winning the cup was never on but , to coin a phrase, we should have given it a right good go today - we didn't. I just hope Lambert has marked a few cards of the shirkers and bottlers today.

I still like Akpan, but he really shouldn't see as much of the ball as he did today. Stick him in front of the back line to break up play, Mokoena-style, and convince him that passing and running with the ball are best left to others.

[Stuart]

Every emotion going on this thread but mostly frustration I sense.

Some thoughts from me.

Lambert and the selections. Disappointed, and annoyed really, at the line up that he chose, and specifically leaving out Hanley and Evans, and to a lesser extent Gomez. You don't break up a gelling CB partnership for the sake of it. Too many square pegs in round holes. To have a chance against a good team you need your best team, on form. Lambert decided against that for goodness knows what reason.

Steele. Made some world class saves at times but made an ass of himself most of the time. A good instinctive blocker but doesn't get down quickly enough and is not at all commanding. Has also picked up this rather annoying continental habit of punching when he could catch. We need better.

Henley. Looked like the right back playing left back that he was. Had a chance for an early cross first half and had to turn on to his stronger foot by which time the chance was gone. Moving Olsson on isn't looking such a great move now.

Ward and Duffy. Centre backs need time to develop an understanding. Chopping and changing then is not a great idea by any stretch. Could suggest that he is planning for life after Grant - if rumours are to be believed - or might just suggest that Lambert expected defeat and didn't want to upset the aura of confincence that we've built up in the league after our run of one game.

Marshall. He is never a full back in a million years, he's a number 10 playing deep. As a consequence, his man was frequently left unmarked at the back and time and time again Taylor had to drop back to cover. Best of a bad bunch but only going forward.

Taylor. Worked well enough, better going forward and was daft getting that second booking so far away from our own goal.

Conway. Anonymous. Never offered width in any attacking capacity and there were several times when the gap opened up and Akpan (with the ball) saw it but Conway didn't. Not surprised he was subbed.

Akpan. Looked well off the pace and like many others his passing was poor. Needs a lesson - maybe he got one today.

Lenihan. He's no Evans but he's young and still learning. Big lesson for him today from Noble.

Bennett. Not a lot to say about him.

Brown. Today he made the mistake of believing he was a footballer. He is not, and never will be one. He is a big lump who needs to play to his big lumpiness and frighten people. The only people he frightened today were Jackson and the Rovers fans. His dropping deep and trying to play neat balls nowhere near anyone were his downfall today. Stick to what you are... good not completely @#/? at. Did well to be the first ever player to get himself offside in his own half.

Ref. Exactly as one-eyed as I expected and feared. Every 50/50 was given to West Ham and he allowed West Ham to buy too many free kicks. I don't think I saw a proper foul today, yet the PL ref gave free kick after free kick against us, and eventually couldn't wait to send off Taylor - quickly whipping out his red card even before the yellow. Still, he will be more than welcome at Upton Park. Conflict of interests much?!

View from the BBE. Although I've watched many a game in here when I was younger, I can understand why there are so many different opinions about the same incidents on here. You really don't get as good a view of Rovers as you do on the sides. Especially playing a PL team.

Rovers fans. 18,793. Not a bad effort - many will feel cheated given the defeatist line up. I know I did.

West Ham fans. Stick yer bubbles up yer @ss.

We move on.

[Doug]

Just back....very disappointed.

I can understand the selection but ironically I mentioned before KO that we'd struggle with Taylor and Henley playing.

Thought we set off ok and didn't look in any trouble.

Once we went 2-1 down we still had a slender chance until Taylor committed the most idiotic challenge I've seen in ages.

Henley was poor, he simply cannot mark or track a player.

Would be disappointed to see either play in Blue n White again.

Marshall rightly named our MOM, can see some teams having a look at him in the summer.

Back 4 caught out similar to Hull game, trying to hold the line....but failed!

Grant is needed in that back 4 ASAP.

Disappointing attendance with around 11K Rovers.

Anyway, we can concentrate on the league now.

Onward and hopefully upward.

[Butty]

Embarrassing day all round, the score line and all round performance other than the first half hour where we were decent. They had nearly as many fans as us!! Time for a beer and too try and forget about that today, on to derby on Wednesday.

[chaddyrovers]

Disappointed result but West Ham were very good after we took the lead.

I hope West Ham win the FA Cup now. Really impress with Bilic today

Didnt quite realised how good Payet was as a player. Amazing player.

Players like Henley, Ward, Akpan, Taylor and Conway were bloody awful today.

Hopefully Lambert overhaul the squad in the summer to get us into the top 6 and getting promotion

[LewisF]

Fantastic goal from Marshall, but other than that an absolutely appalling display all round; safe to say I won't be putting Henley at LB in many of my future pre match selections! Centre halves were bad and Akpan was too, but the referee was an absolute disgrace, gave them lot every single thing. And as for Steele, he can make some absolutely fantastic saves at times, but can also make a fool of himself, see their equaliser

Overall an awful display neatly capped off by an awful ref

[chaddyrovers]

Wasn't it the like of you Mani and chaddy praising Gary Bowyer's signings.

Jal, finishing playing the playstation have you now?

See my comments previous comments about us needing squad overhaul come the summer.

[cesus]

West Ham are an excellent team and Payet is an absolute class act but by god did we help them today.

The actual team didn't have me banging my head against the wall, we have one league win in ten and whilst it was a good win it most certainly IS relegation form. The players who didn't make the game are 3 of our most important players but in Hanley and Gomez we have a mixture of recently injured and short of match fitness. Evans for me is first pick of the midfield defensive three, I would have liked to have seen him play but I trust the manager on that one.

The replacements all kinda picked themselves, Ward is 3rd choice centre half so makes sense but him and Duffy as a partnership were poor. Henley at left back has been on the cards for a while, it seriously and I mean seriously didn't work today he had a stinker. Taylor is our "go to" man in the cups and doesn't often let down, he let us down massively today the second yellow was criminal absolutely criminal. Also Conway coming in isn't like playing a man on his debut out of the under 18's he is out of form but surely he can find it the same way as he has lost it?

First 20 until Steele and second half 10 until Taylor could have made for a great game, unfortunately both those serious errors occurred and they mercilessly punished us.

[Darwen Rover 007]

Really disappointed with lambert today... Iv been a staunch supporter of his and he continues to have my trust as I believe he'll come good... But today, in my view he should've played his best team; could've given us confidence boost for the final few games of the season and also the fans (let's face it we've not had too much to shout about)

Also don't think it was a coincidence our worst players were those who've not played for a while; can't really expect them to do well against a vibrant West Ham side...

We need at least 5 top quality signings in the summer to get us near the top..

GK

RB

LB

CM

ST

[Neal]

Was sat in Bburn end today, lot of in-fighting going on regarding Taylor and numerous things.

Really strange situation, i want to trust the manager who i'm fully behind but @#/? off at his selection. Also dont want to start getting on his back because i think he has the potential to get us challenging next season and if the relationship between him and the fans goes sour then he could well walk away... Then we'd be stuffed.

Brown is like watching Ashley Ward without the goals... And that is saying something. If PL offers him another contract then that will send out the wrong message to the fans regarding him ambitions amd much like what he said about Koita... "we need to he attracting a better quality of player". Brown gets an A for effort but is possibly the most embarrasing player ive seen play for us.

[RevidgeBlue]

Was sat in Bburn end today, lot of in-fighting going on regarding Taylor and numerous things.

Really strange situation, i want to trust the manager who i'm fully behind but @#/? off at his selection. Also dont want to start getting on his back because i think he has the potential to get us challenging next season and if the relationship between him and the fans goes sour then he could well walk away... Then we'd be stuffed.

Brown is like watching Ashley Ward without the goals... And that is saying something. If PL offers him another contract then that will send out the wrong message to the fans regarding him ambitions amd much like what he said about Koita... "we need to he attracting a better quality of player". Brown gets an A for effort but is possibly the most embarrasing player ive seen play for us.

Bit in bold spot on.

[DaveyB]

I was gutted this week when I realised that I wouldn't finish work in time to get there today, but as soon as I saw the line-up my only emotion was relief that at least I hadn't wasted £20 (plus petrol money) as it was all so predictable as to what would happen.

I can only guess that the thinking was that midfield would be able to chase and harry the wham midfield, but it was so woefully short on quality that it made keeping hold of the ball incredibly difficult and creating anything almost impossible. The outcome of this is that there's more onus put on Marshall to get forward and be our one source of creativity, which in turn leaves us short at the back. Personally, I'd be tempted to play someone else at rb (Elliott Bennett maybe) and just give Marshall a free role for the rest of the season. He's that important to us at the moment and he's wasted having to track back and do the defensive side of things.

Back to today, I actually thought Brown did ok, albeit in patches. He held the ball up ok and battled with their centre backs, but tired badly after about 20mins of each half. He needed another player up there with him to share some of the workload with him.

The most worrying thing for me however is the way we just seemed to capitulate in the second half. That's twice now in just over a week that we've gone down without a fight in the second half of games. There's no disgrace in losing to better teams, but the manner of the last two defeats is unacceptable and if it's a sign of the spirit and fight in the squad then relegation may not be as far away as some on here seem to believe.

Btw I'm glad to see that someone else saw just how bad Elliott Ward was - I was beginning to think it was just me. I didn't get to the Boro game where apparently he played ok, but certainly in the Hull game and again today he was shocking and Kilgallon must be wondering what he's done wrong because, from what I've seen, he's a vastly better player than Ward.

[ABBEY]

What an embarrassment that was . How anyone can clap Chris Taylor off is beyond me . What a stupid brain dead idiot he is . The free kick ffs why oh why did foul him ? He had cover . The sending off was absolutely stupid . What a complete moron and ye the got clapped off . I think that's me finished with cup football . We play a good prem side but play ( yes I know cup tied and injuries) a less than full strength team . Hang your head lambert !

Someone said we put effort in ? I thought after we scored we looked lazy and backed off instead tackling . I wasn't going to mention Rhodes but someone else did so I will . You all wanted Rhodes and you got brown a striker who has more red cards than goals.

[jim mk2]

Embarrassing and awful day all round.

Only 11,000 Rovers fans, three sides of the ground half empty, plus 7,000 braying Cockneys . Horrible.

Then Lambert's team selection - which smacked of a lack of ambition and made a difficult game even harder.

After Marshall's surprise goal, Steele needs to be dropped for a long time for letting West Ham back in the game with that pathetic dive which would have embarrassed a Sunday league keeper.

And Taylor should have his contract terminated for a brainless and totally needless 2nd yellow card that more or less sealed our fate. Do footballers have any intelligence?

The Blackburn public is cynical enough about Rovers already without that dire showing today.

Lambert has alot to answer for.

[Hasta]

With all due credit to those that turned up - remind me what was the "home" gate ? Those that turned up for Liverpool last season were nowhere to be seen - sorry for those that turned up, but you can't entirely blame PL when a lot of the Blackburn public obviously don't care themselves about the FA Cup.

Blah, blah,blah.

Had we got 30,000 on , would it have been any different?

Let's deflect the performance onto those rovers fans who chose not to go shall we.

[JAL]

Jal, finishing playing the playstation have you now?

See my comments previous comments about us needing squad overhaul come the summer.

You supported every Bowyer signing 36 plus and now you are championing even more players to come into the club as the debt on the club rises.

What is your agenda as the first team continually struggles.