“Less a teamsheet and more suicide note,” is Matt’s texted
comment on the team of kids Big Sam sends out at Forest. He gives debuts to
Callum Driver, Danny Whitehead and Sebastian Leitget, while George Moncur plays
his first full game. However, there is experience in the side in the form of
Jarvis, Downing, Diarra, Maiga and even Ravel Morrison.
The first half is mainly Forest with the home side taking
the lead after 12 minutes after Moncur brings down Paterson and Abdoun chips
home a cheeky penalty. Morrison produces a fine free kick over the wall saved
by Darlow but that’s about it. The three centre-back formation doesn’t work
well and Jarvis and Downing struggle as wing-backs, though Downing does get a
couple of good crosses in. Maiga can’t hold the ball up when he gets it and we
need a bigger performance from a £4m player. Driver denies Forest a second with
a good tackle, but it looks ominous at the break as Halford and our former
makeshift goalkeeper Lansbury miss chances.
YOU'LL WIN NOTHING WITH KIDS
It’s bad on TV but Matt is actually there, having taken Lisa
on a romantic mini-break to the Lace Hotel to see our reserves get tonked and
an ice hockey match between the Panthers and Devils the previous evening. His
half-time verdict is: “I am the only one trying to be positive! Some angry
blokes slaughtering the kids, which won’t help their confidence. Not many home
fans here.”
What hope we have goes in the second half as Diarra goes off
for Burke and Downing is replaced by Blair Turgott, so it’s two more debutants.
Leitget has a deflected shot saved and Morrison has a shot from the left flank stopped as the Hammers
show brief signs of life, but then the kids start to look disheartened and as
Roy Keane later points out show little of the passion and energy you’d expect. The
midfield stops tracking Forest’s runners and Paterson drifts through for a
second. Sam is serenaded with “You’re getting sacked in the morning!” from the
West Ham fans. It gets worse. Paterson scores from Lansbury’s lay off and
Hammers collapse, though credit Turgott for at least getting a shot in and forcing a save. Paterson completes his hat-trick and Andy Reid finishes the
humiliation with a fifth in added time.
FOREST IRE
The youngsters have been let down by a lack of leadership from
the senior pros and as Roy Keane points out, Big Sam “didn’t even sound up for
it in his pre-match interview”. West Ham have a tremendously difficult week
with the semi-final at Man City on Wednesday and the trip to Cardiff on
Saturday and a huge injury-list, but it’s never good to send out the message
that you aren’t too bothered about winning a game, as this teamsheet did.
At least Matt and Lisa’s afternoon improves with veggie
potato cakes and Red Harvest Pale ale at the contemporary art gallery.
Allardyce was correct to rest some senior players and play a
few kids, but it needed the likes of Taylor, Collison, Rat and Joe Cole to lend
some experience too. Losing 5-0, even with the kids, isn’t great preparation
for a massive two games coming up. After this we need to play the full-team at
Manchester City and Cardiff and win back some pride.
7 comments:
Dont bother Pete, there wasnt a match to report on.
I'd make it a bottle of brandy after that shower of sh*te
Surely Sam's got to go now. Relegation or not. He was never right for West Ham and never will be. We need to be trying to play the right kind of football even if it is with the wrong kind of players. This is just Embarrassing. What will happen v Man City?
Almost as embarrassing as the England cricket team...as bad as it gets and I've been a fan since 1969...
Terrible day and very like England in Sydney Chrissy. We might feel differently if our best side gets a result at Man City and Cardiff but that's a big if. Lack of passion was worrying, even if it was the kids and Allardyce had to try to get a few more more senior pros in. This was embarrassing.
I know I've been harsh on our players in the past, but not this time. In all the long, weary decades of watching West Ham, this was both the most inexperienced team I have seeen, and the biggest defeat, which is no accident. I am angry at Allardyce for pretty much sabotaging the careers of some of our young players. It was 1-0 (and to a soft penalty) after 65 minutes, when he took off Diarra, who was our one senior defender. And 25 minutes later it was 5-0. While we had to play some youngsters, because of the injuries and the Man City game, you need some older heads too. If, say, Demel and Taylor had started, it might have been different. In the first half some of the fans were critical, but in the second half it was real support, which I hope came across on TV. Shades of the 1991 Forest semi-final.
yes very strange taking Diarra off. He could have given Driver a debut and played some experienced full backs alongside him. Could hear Bubbles on the tele though we also saw that poor kid in tears who has now been invited into the Director's box.
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