Olympic Stadium capacity up to 60,000

Encouraging news with today's announcement that the capacity at the Olympic Stadium has been increased from 54,000 to 60,000. Not sure where they're going to put the seats, can only assume the club has borrowed a few extra wooden chairs from Ken's Cafe. Sixty thousand seats gives us parity with Arsenal's capacity at the Emirates Library and is maybe a sign we can become bigger than the Gunners. The Evening Standard recently had a worrying feature pointing out that clubs moving to a new stadium often have a dip in home form so it's important we move to the OS after a great end to the season with everyone buzzing. But hopefully with 60,000 fans singing the Payet song it's going to be something special.

Time Lord at the Boleyn Ground

Good to see that West Ham fan Donald Sumpter gets his own picture disc in the new dvd of Doctor Who Series 9. Here is Sumpter as Rassilon, the Lord President of the High Council of Time Lords (he gets banished by Peter Capaldi's Doctor in the series' closer Hell Bent). My pal Michael spotted Donald in the East Stand and had a chat with the thespian Hammer, who proved to be a decent and self-effacing chap. Though sadly he can't go back in time to have a word with Lionel Scaloni in 2006. We once numbered the King of Norway among our fans, but having a President of the Time Lords surely tops that. And for any West Ham Whovians (Whuvians?), more reminisces about Doctor Who, including the time Catherine Tate's Donna told David Tennant she learned to whistle "up West Ham", can be found in my Kindle Single book Whovian Dad: A Doctor Who Fan's Travels Through Time and Space.

How do we cope with being successful?

It's difficult this business of being near the top of the league. Should we be grateful at getting a point at Chelsea or fuming because an incorrect penalty decision cost WHU two points and kept West Ham out of the top four? Should we be grateful to get a draw at Man United in the FA Cup or fuming that the ref missed Schweinsteiger's push on Randolph, this contributing to our fixture congestion and affecting our Champions League bid. Should we be really annoyed when envious teams like Man United and Chelsea raise their game against Champions League contenders? Should we be targeting the Cup, the Champions League or the Europa League? And is it safe to say we're too good to go down yet? I'm confused, as I guess a lot of fans must be.

Dodgy penalty pegs back Hammers at the Bridge

Chelsea 2 West Ham 2

A couple of seasons ago WHU were delighted to get a backs-to-the-wall 0-0 at Chelsea, now we're disappointed not to win. Couldn't get a ticket but sounds like a great game. Fantastic strike from distance by Lanzini for the first and a good finish by Andy Carroll for the second from Payet's pass. Not much anyone could do about Fabregas's free kick (though the ref had the wall 12 years back instead of ten) and Chelsea's late equaliser came from a penalty, when in fact Antonio committed the offence outside the area. 

At 1-1 Cresswell shot wide after a great move and back heel from Lanzini, and then hit the bar.  After scoring the second Carroll had a header off the line and almost reached Emenike's cross late on, and it's a game we should have won. Still, another decent result. Unbeaten at Arsenal, Liverpool, Man City, Man United and Chelsea will do me.

What's also fantastic to see is that we have four strikers who can come in and change things in Sakho, Valencia, Carroll and Emenike, which reminds me a bit of Man United in the days of Cole, Yorke, Solksjaer and Sheringham. And, of course, the game was a credit to the Premier League; it's always good to see a small team like Chelsea with nothing to play for raise their game against Champions League contenders…

The Boleyn's Rib Man makes the Observer

Never expected the food stalls on Green Street to suddenly become trendy with foodies. But Mark Gevaux, the Rib Man who runs a stall from the back of the Boleyn has just made it into the Observer magazine's Food and Drink section. Mark's a one-legged former butcher from Essex who spends much of the night preparing his ribs. His speciality is his aptly-named Holy Fuck sauce, made from Scotch bonnet peppers and naga chillies. Gevaux is a massive West Ham fan, but has recently found fame among the hipsters of Brick Lane market and is now being courted by restaurateurs, foodie writers and Master Chef winners. Click on the link to read the piece.

Trains not taking the strain in Manchester

Good to see that the Manchester Evening News, The Sun and Daily Mail reported the chaos at Manchester Piccadilly station on Sunday night. The problem was that with too many fans for the trains, the police kettled us behind the glass doors on to the platform. The crowd was kept behind barriers in a winding line and the crush grew very heavy threatening to knock people over and becoming positively scary. We were kept there for an hour and rather than let people with reservations on to their trains the police let people through on a first-come first-served basis. I was there at 7.20pm for the 7.35pm train, but no-one was let through at all.

Despite chants of "Hillsborough!" and "You don't know what you're doing!" the Transport Police didn't make any announcements and nothing came over the PA, so the passengers waiting got angrier and angrier. Eventually a barrier got kicked over and there was a rush for the doors when the police tried to let people through in single file. There was a lot of pushing and shoving and one woman said she was accidentally hit when a policeman aimed a punch at a man who ducked. I eventually made it on to the 8.21pm train.

It was terrible policing, though not all the West Ham fans behaved well either. The transport police on the train had to prevent some fans stealing beer from the closed bar, while the police then seemed to favour a quiet life when a group of drunken Herberts sang anti-Semitic Spurs songs for the final part of the journey.

So it was a pretty shoddy journey all round — and certainly not worth £82 as I had to stand up all the way on the outward journey from London too. The fact that there was a football match and 9,000 West Ham fans were travelling to Manchester should not have taken Virgin Trains and the police by surprise.

A sense of belonging

What was really encouraging about West Ham's draw at Old Trafford was the way we looked so confident and took the game to the home side. Admittedly Manchester United are looking stolid compared to the Fergie years, but it's still an intimidating arena to come to. We looked like we believed we belonged in such an arena, and after wins at Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City and two draws at Man United we are entitled to believe. You got the sense that WHU are developing into a really good, mentally strong, side. Even when United equalised, Bilic and the team still believed they could win it.

It was a little worrying that Payet said he was overjoyed to score a great goal in one of the "most beautiful" stadiums in the Premier League. Hopefully that wasn't a come and get me plea to Man United, but rather an appreciation of United's stadium architecture — and if Dimitri really is such a connoisseur of stadiums, he'll surely stick around to see the fixtures and fittings at the Olympic Stadium  and our new state-of-the-art retractable stands, presumably built with a job lot of shopping trolley wheels from Green Street market.

So it could be Everton if we beat Man United, a repeat of the 1980 FA Cup semi-final. But nothing will be easy and I just hope the lads can cope with the expectation that is building towards our last home game in the FA Cup. Though we've got the distraction of going for a Champions League place. Words I can't believe I'm writing… Irons!