Succumbing to Wigan pier pressure

Wigan 2 West Ham 1

Oh well, at least no-one chartered a plane pulling a banner reading "Avram Grant: Millwall Legend" this time. There wasn't much we could do about the first goal as it was a fantastic volley from Ramis, the player we tried to sign. There was some sloppy defending for the second and according to Sam and the press we didn't play well at all. Tomkins was unlucky with his volley that hit the bar and at least he managed a late consolation with his header. Nice Hardyesque beard from Tomka too. Seems like we aimed at Carroll and not much else for most of the match. One striker doesn't work if Nolan doesn't get in the box and surely it's time to give Maiga a full game as a second striker.

But this was a game we needed to get something from. Our next run of games is Man City at home, Newcastle away, Stoke at home, Spurs and Man United away and Chelsea at Upton Park. Stoke now becomes a must-win game, as we'll do well to get much from the rest. Nice point from Sam about setting targets in Friday's Standard. He says looking at the season as a whole gives players the chance to always believe things will come right at the end of the season, which was what happened under Avram. Giving the players targets for eight game runs gives them something more concrete to aim at. Though he did get a bit metaphysical with his assertion that "we deal with reality not perception" at Upton Park. The reality is we lost at Wigan, although with 14 points we still have a solid base to get through a troublesome November.