To have only garnished 15 points from our opening 19 games of playing every team means we face an uphill task to get the 25 needed from the return fixtures to hit the magical “you don’t go down with 40” target. That equates to 3 extra victories and a draw on top of the results we got in the 1st half of the season, yet on top of that we have to throw in the fact that we beat Fulham at home but in the 1st game of the second round of 19 games we lost to Fulham, taking into consideration our victory V Cardiff away matched our home victory we are currently are -3 points for the second half of the season. That’s now an extra game we need to win on top of the 3 extra that were required going into the second half of the season. Considering we only won 3 games out of the opening round the fact that we need to win 7 out of 17 does not bode well, that of course pre supposes that we pick up the same amount of Draws. Today’s opponent’s Newcastle are one of the teams that we drew with, while only draw today is not disastrous a win would put the running total at just -1 bearing in mind that Chelsea away is up next, a certain defeat that takes us into February’s run of games which will define our season. In the corresponding fixtures we only took 3 points out of the 12 on offer against our opponent’s for that month but with 3 of those games at home this is our opportunity to get ourselves out of the mire. Swansea, Norwich and the saints all at home would generally be put down as a home banker for all 3 but if we think we stand any chance of keeping out of the bottom 3 then we need a minimum of 6 points from those 3. On top of that we have 1 away day to Villa, where we have to get a draw minimum. Stay undefeated in February with at least 2 wins then things should be looking up going into the final bend of March before hitting the home straight in April. We need to be on 40 points by the end of April as we don’t want to be relying on picking up points in our 2 games in May. As fine as our record is this season V spurs 3, 3 wins against them is possibly beyond even us, that leaves our final game of the season back up to Manchester City who could still need 3 points to win the title, and bearing in mind our previous visit there, would you really want to need points to stay up going into our last game of the season.
The fact I contemplate that we can stay up is more to do with the chances that there are 3 worst teams in the premier league than us, problem in Sunderland recently have shown that they have turned their corner, 1 month ago we drew with Sunderland here and were 5 points clear of them, that is now down to 1, Fulham and Palace with their wins over us perhaps do have the teams to put up a fight. To be honest I’m glad I’m writing this after the great away win at Cardiff because that has brought renewed hope that if we can come together as a team than we can dig out a victory, but if ever there was a definable fine line between winning or losing then that has to be the width of the paint on the goal line at Cardiff, because I swore that ball was over the line and if we do manage to stay up by a point or 2 then I wont be thanking BFS or his cronies, but the people at the FA who made the decision to bring in Goaline technology, without that being in place I reckon that we could quite of possibly lost that game if we had gone 1 down. It is that close, and it wouldn’t have been th 1st time. In September 1997 Bolton played Everton in a 0-0 draw, Bolton believed that they had scored when a shot hit the bar and crashed down then out into play, the referee didn’t give it, the TV proved it did cross the line, Bolton should of won the game giving them 3 points Everton 0.
Forward on to the end of the season and low and behold Bolton get relegated and guess who survived, yup, Everton, not only that but Everton only finished above Bolton by Goal difference, thus surviving to live another day, it sometimes can be that close as a did it or didn’t it cross the line.
I have tried as much to avoid mentioning in any detail our cup performances of the last week, suffice to say that when you bear in mind that we only realistically can win a trophy by winning a cup, and that our History was built by being in Cup Finals, our disregard for the FA cup this season sums up probably how the people running football clubs in this day and age are out of touch with the supporters. Even knowing what we know about Wigans demise from the premier league last season, and their struggle to get back up this season, I still would have had their season over ours. Football should be about winning, winning games and then that leads to winning trophies, to send out a team as we did v Forest especially with the owners knowledge shows the complete disregard for the supporters following the team that day, the owners should apologise for allowing that to happen, and refund all those attending. The only shining light to come out of our worst ever week of football was the conduct of our fans, Owners, players & staff may come and go but it is the fans that stay till the end.
Lastly the ticketing arrangements for the Man City return leg leave the club in limbo, 6-0 down at half time, they quickly changed the game to “Kids for a quid” but you can only get a kids ticket with an Adult, cheapest price £42. Who realistically is going to think about paying out close to 50 notes to take your kid to watch the most meaningless of games since the Oldham semi in 1990 and in that game we at least had our new manager the legend that is Billy Bonds in his 1st game in charge. I understand that they had to set the prices before the 1st leg but come on west ham, this was a great chance for those magicians in the PR dept to work their magic, cut the prices down to a score an adult, fiver any kid, I bet you would have got 25,000+, and you could of used as a thank you or giving something back to the fans, what great PR would that have been. Perhaps you could of gone further and bearing in mind the £5 ticket debacle at the previous city home game, a game that at least had meaning, made every ticket in the ground a fiver, but no, not even with a repeat of “come see city’s superstars” will the PR/marketing dept manage to magic up the fans to come out on possibly a cold winters night to watch a game that is live on TV or on the internet as is the fashion now days. I will be at the game as I am the mug punter, the fan that would possibly attend the opening of an envelope if it was done in claret and blue, yet I hope to see around 15,000 or less at the game because perhaps then our owners will see that we cant all be mugged off as they are doing with the charges for Tuesday night. Not only that, but the queue for the train might be a bit quicker as well.
Lastly I,ve started to try and collate in 1 place every video clip of as many West Ham games as I can find, legal or illegal I don’t care, I have named this “The Reel History of West Ham” the 1st clips are up on the you tube site with the earliest being a FA cup win against Manchester united from 1911. Feel free to pop by and have a look and if you want to recommend or ask for a clip I will do my best to get it up on the site. I will continue to update you all as I go along. Any comments etc etc to mywhufc@yahoo.com
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