A good turnout at Mabel's Tavern for this one, with Lisa and Matt, Michael the Brigadier's Biographer and a tardy Nigel all present. Barely has my Neck Oil been supped before West are ahead. Declan Rice pings a good ball out to Ben Johnson and rather than cross he cuts inside to fire a long-range left foot shot past Martinez. The spirit among the squad is shown by the group celebration, a parody of Ben's dodgy schooldays dancing moves which recently went viral on twitter.
Bowen has a goalbound effort headed away by Konsa, but slowly Villa come back into it. They equalise when Buendia gets the wrong side of Fornals and crosses for the unmarked Watkins to shoot past Fabianski, who gets a foot to it but fails to block. Three mistakes in one goal that will surely anger Moyes.
The camera now turns to Dean Smith in the Villa dugout who seems to be getting advice from a Rick Wakeman lookalike, which pleases prog rocker Nigel. West Ham still look the mote likely side going forward and score at a good time before the break. The overlapping Cresswell distracts the defence as Benrahma cuts inside to pass to Rice on the edge of the box who fires a low shot into the corner for his third of the season.
It all kicks of in the second half after 50 minutes. Fornals is felled by an arm in the face from Hause, the ball finds Antonio who flicks on to Bowen, who is then brought down on the edge of the box by last man Konsa. Without any sound in the pub we assume that it's the forearm smash that has resulted in a red but it's actually Konsa who has gone for the professional foul. It should undoubtedly have been a double sending off — it seems incredible that Hause's assault wasn't deemed a red by VAR.
With ten men Villa start to play better and Watkins hits the bar with a header. West Ham are getting sloppy with their passing and don't seem able to calm the game down, much to the chagrin of Mystic Matt, who then doubts the wisdom of bringing on Lanzini, as Nigel suggests to Lisa that a wellness sojourn in San Francisco might be required.
There's another fracas as Fornals and Nakamba slide in for a 50-50 ball, made to look worse by Nakamba taking six rolls across the turf. The team spirit is again shown by Lanzini and Bowen getting involved in a pushing match with the Villa players to defend their team-mate as Pablo gets a yellow.
But this West Ham team find a way to win. On 80 minutes Antonio is again clattered but manages to flick the ball on to Bowen. Jarrod races clear to shoot, Martinez saves but Pablo Fornals is on hand to score from the rebound and reprise Fabian Balbuena's General salute.
It gets better. Two minutes later Antonio drifts past Hause and keeps calm to find Lanzini in the box. Manuel unselfishly passes across the box to Bowen who taps home for a great team goal. What an October its been for the Irons.
In a desperate bid to make the blog, Nigel leaves during added time to race to a gig by Michael Schenker the ex-Scorpions guitarist. There was an iffy patch in the second half, but another great win and we remain fourth. The next league game is against Liverpool so we can't get too carried away, but it's starting to feel like a special season. The only thing that could make it better would be if Tottenham sacked their manager in the morning... Irons!
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