Saturday Morning
I’ve just had a good kip for a change, the sun is bathing me in its warm glow and soon I’ll be heading east towards Upton Park for my first game in ages; the first of four in a row, I’m pleased to say. Carlton Cole was ruled out way back, and I was glad to hear he wouldn’t be facing us, and it looks like Scott Parker may also be unavailable. Having Richardson back will be a big boost for us and Ferdinand will be trying his best on his home turf while it’s possible Gordon will return in goal after hitting the headlines midweek. If he wants to leave, I’d be happy to get half of what we paid for him and use it wisely to strengthen the squad. I think we’ll get a draw this afternoon and we really need to get something. Several of our rivals are playing each other and the day could get off to a good start if Spurs beat Blackburn in the early game. In our four other London games this season we’ve got a win and two draws, which is better than we usually manage, so we need to keep that up. Well, time to get some grub down my neck before departure.

The Match
Crucial parts of the Tube weren’t working but after a swift pint of Addlestone’s Cider en route I was sitting in my seat at 2.40. The sun was blasting down and my face is quite red as I type this. Typically, after months of freezing miserable weather, a few people near me were moaning about it being too sunny. Blackburn had just beaten Spurs 2-1 as I made my way in and that wasn’t good news. Gordon was indeed back in goal and Cisse was playing alone upfront while Kenwyne was on the bench. West Ham have got a mascot with a large hammer for a head and as mascots go, it’s a very pleasing effort.

West Ham started strongly, forcing two corners in the first two minutes, but we soon battled back and had the better of the first half. Cisse was buzzing around effectively and the lethargy he’d displayed in recent games was gone. This was the first time I’d seen Ben Haim and he looked cool in defence but his passing was dodgy at times. Ferdinand was looking strong, Malbranque was doing a lot of good stuff and we were keeping the home crowd quiet enough for our fans to give them a blast of, “Shall we sing a song for you?” I was just thinking that Gordon hadn’t had a save to make all half when he was picking the ball out of the net with three minutes to go to half-time. It had come after a great shot by Cisse had been palmed out for a corner by Green but West Ham broke quickly down their left and three half-baked challenges by our defenders allowed Stanislas, who was making his debut, to fire home from close range. West Ham gained the initiative and Bardsley did well to head over our bar to clear a dangerous cross in stoppage-time.

That was a bummer and a half but I hoped that if we replaced Murphy with Kenwyne from the restart, we could fight back for an equalizer. I like to see Murphy come on as a battling sub fifteen minutes from time but I don’t think he’s up to a full game at this level. During the break some members of the Essex cricket team did a lap of honour with some trophy or other and they managed to raise a bit of a ripple from our end along with many shouts of “ Durham!” There was a mysterious announcement of, “Mr Moon is in the ground” followed a few minutes later by another saying, “Mr Moon has left the stadium.” I don’t know what the hell that was all about but I rather enjoyed it. Boro and West Brom were also losing at half-time and that soothed matters a little.

There were no changes after the break but seven minutes later Kenwyne finally replaced Murphy but by that time West Ham were 2-0 up courtesy of a good header by Tomkins from a corner that Gordon got a hand to but couldn’t stop going into the corner of the net. We’d really lost control by this stage and fortunately Gordon made a series of great saves to keep the score to a respectable margin. We still managed the occasional good effort from Malbranque and Richardson but I couldn’t see us pulling it back. Spector was badly injured midway through the half and I don’t remember such a long stoppage in a game. When he was eventually carried off, he got a very good round of applause from the home fans as well as from our end. Edwards replaced Malbranque with fifteen minutes on the clock and he didn’t do badly at all. Personally. I’d always play Reid as he can come up with the unexpected. Bardsley had a great shot a few minutes later that Green only managed to get at the second attempt. This sparked a mini revival by us and we had a couple more good attempts shortly afterwards. The guy behind me, who’d earlier displayed a good range of vocabulary in describing Murphy as an “ineffectual twat”, urged us on from a corner with the words, “C’mon yer sapless bastards!” With ten minutes left Di Michele was subbed by Kieran Dyer. While some of our fans had earlier chanted to the effect that Alan Shearer was unacquainted with his father, Dyer was greeted with a chant that suggested that he knew various members of his family very well indeed. Some of our lot were leaving early even though there was clearly going to be plenty of stoppage-time and a group of Hammers fans near our end began chanting, “We can see you sneaking out.” A buxom woman in our midst responded to this by giving them a good eyeful of her ample charms and this added some much needed levity to proceedings, though perhaps gravity also played its part in this happy tableau. When the stoppage-time was announced it was a whopping eight minutes and Cisse fanned my very faint flickers of hope by storming down our right and blasting just over. Ages later (the clock had stopped by this time) we had a shot cleared off the line but it ended 2-0 and I was out of there pronto and on the packed train back to central London. I heard the other scores on the way and the fact that Newcastle, Boro and West Brom all lost too sweetened the pill a little.

So, the days are getting longer and warmer, the buds are coming out on the trees and Sunderland A.F.C. are fighting a relegation battle. It must be springtime again.

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