It's down to the diehards of Matt, Lisa and myself at the London Stadium, though no doubt the glory hunters will be back soon. It's a rainy night thanks to Hurricane Nigel, which will surely cause delays on the Highway to Hell if it's named after the absent Nigel. Old soul rebels Matt and myself have been to see Dexys the previous night and are wondering if Geno (which is played at half-time) could be changed to a chant of "Oh Thilo!"
Backa Topola have a tiny amount of away fans and it's a low key start to our Europa League campaign, with Moyes making nine changes from Saturday. This is our reward for winning the Europa Conference and incredibly WHU are in Europe for a third successive season.
West Ham have a lot of early possession and go close several times. Ward-Prowse's free-kick deflects off the wall and over, Kehrer has a low shot well-saved, Kudus has a shot defected just wide and Ward-Prowse's corner is headed wide of the post by Dinos Mavropanos.
But a well-drilled Topola cut off the supply to Paqueta and threaten on the break as the half goes on, with one header striking the top of the bar.Emerson comes on to offer more on an attacking threat at the break.
Early in the second half Backa take the lead after a disastrous error by Ogbonna. He seems to get the ball trapped under his feet and allows Stanic to score with a firm finish past Fabianski. An upset looks possible as the Vicar's Son next to me starts to get agitated. Fornals is miscontrolling simple balls and Ings can't get in the game.
Inevitably the talismanic Antonio is summoned off the bench. Micky miscontrols a couple of decent chances but his presence makes a difference. The crowd get behind the side with a chorus of, "West Ham are massive!"
The equaliser arrives when Benrahma dummies and leaves his defender on the ground, crossing for Petrovic, under pressure from Kudus, to knock the ball into his own net.
Kudus looks a proper flair player and has kept going all night. He gets his reward when the usual excellent corner from Ward-Prose allows him to head home. Mystic Matt then declares that bringing on Soucek for Ings is a typical Moyes substitution and won't increase our goal threat. Ward-Prowse duly swings over another precision corner and Soucek heads in at the near post.
There's still time for Soucek to have a shot saved and then for Antonio to gather the rebound only to see his shot well-saved again by Simic. So a welcome three points in our first match, admittedly against the weakest team in the group, even if Backa are top of the Serbian league at the moment.
Matt and Lisa have the brainwave of going straight to north London for a drink on the Overground and we end up at the House of Hammerton on Holloway Road. We enjoy sampling the fruit beer, N7, nitro stout and a other crafty delights. Later Matt researches the pub and discovers it was formerly the Wig and Pen and before that the Black House run by Michael X and where John Lennon and Yoko Ono stood on the roof and swapped locks of their hair for a pair of Muhammed Ali's boxing shorts, as you do. This could be peak Islington.
So ultimately another satisfying Euro night, but also a warning that the Hammers can't be complacent. Now all we have to do is win at Anfield on Sunday.
PLAYER RATINGS: Fabianski 6; Kehrer 6, Ogbonna 5, Mavropanos 6, Cresswell 5 (Emerson 6); Kudus 7, Ward-Prowse 7, Paqueta 6 (Cornet n/a), Fornals 5 (Antonio 6), Benrahma 6; Ings 5 (Soucek 7).
No comments:
Post a Comment