It's an evening at home with a bottle of Proper Job watching this, with Sky TV obviously hoping for an upset. Strangely, Gillingham manager and Sky pundit Gareth Ainsworth appears to be dressed for a role as Legolas in Lord of the Rings. While it’s nice to see ex-Hammer Chris Cohen on the bench as Lincoln’s joint manager.
Thankfully the predicted giant-killing doesn't occur as after two minutes Hamer hammers Veltman with a two-footed lunge and is immediately shown a red card. That wasn't very Impish. The Irons struggle to break down the ten men of Lincoln as I WhatsApp my West Ham group with a Big Sam-style warning that, "it's always difficult to play against ten men."
On 23 minutes defender McGrandles miscues and Bowen is in on goal. The Lincoln man brings him down and it's another inevitable red card. It's always difficult to play against nine men. The Hammers do indeed lack inspiration for the rest of the half. Kante heads a great chance wide from a corner, Solomon can't get in the game and Engels overhits his dead balls, while Bowen is shackled by two defenders.
Thankfully the Hammers make the breakthrough on half time. Bowen's corner is headed home by the Greek Bloke for Dinos' fifth goal of the season, with Piroe doing well to block off the keeper. Five goals in five games, Mavropanos is outscoring soon-to-be Northern League striker Erling Haaland.
ON ME EDVIN
Nuno makes a good call at half-time taking off defender Morato and bringing on an extra attacker in Austbo. Asbo makes an instant impact cutting in from the left and firing home a superb dipping shot in off the bar. A minute later Bowen gets a shot off that deflects in off a defender. By this stage I'm confident of at least a point.
The Hammers still lack a Paqueta-type passer and don't have much luck trying to free Piroe or sub Castellanos in the middle. But the patient approach pays off when Pablo heads home from a corner for his first league goal.
The final bonus is the arrival of super sub Tomas Soucek, who has just signed a new contract. His first goal is a clever shot lifted over the leg of a tackling defender. The sixth goal and Tomas's second arrives when keeper Wickens can't hold a Kilman cross and Soucek is on hand to tap home and celebrate with his trademark windmill. It might be safe to look at the league table now. Tomas is going to score a lot of goals in this division. Ever the nice guy, he hands his shirt to a young girl at the end.
Michael and Lisa send a selfie from the new lucky pub of the Wellington in Waterloo. This is West Ham's joint best away victory ever, only matched by the 6-0 away victory at Leicester in 1923, and no, I wasn't there. You wait all season for a 6-0 victory and then two come along at once. We're the division's top scorers with 14 different players (including one own goal) finding the net this season.
Yes, we should beat nine men and the first half wasn't great, but you have to beat what's in front of you and you can't sniff at a 6-0 away win. A stiffer test will come at top of the table Swansea City on Saturday but this result must be a big confidence booster. Irons!
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