Saturday Morning
I’m feeling confident about this afternoon’s match and think we’ll win it 2-1. West Ham have some quality players though as a mate of mine pointed out last night, having an England goalie isn’t really much to shout about these days. They’re going through a bad patch and the absence of Dyer and Parker can only be of help to us. Bent will be back and hopefully will show the rest of his teammates how to hit the net after Tuesday’s performance when we did everything but score. I don’t think there’ll be any additional changes to our line-up apart from Ferdinand probably coming in for McCartney. Nos looked cool on Tuesday and I’d be happy to see him alongside Turner again while I really hope Reid will start.

The Match
This was a weird match and along with most of the crowd I applauded the team off after they’d managed a 2-2 against a low-placed side. If I was Kenwyne, I’m sure I’d be wondering why my colleagues played much better without me for half the game. It was certainly a great second-half performance but we needed something drastic to balance patches of the first-half where we were very bad indeed. There was little hint of this in the opening stages when we pressed and looked likely to score but then our passing in the final third became very sloppy and West Ham started to create chances. It was a very niggly match and Cana booked himself a couple of weeks off when he collected his fifth yellow card of the season. He was soon followed by Bent and late in the half by Turner. In between the last two bookings West Ham had gone 2-0 up in a six-minute period of infamy for us. First of all they gained a lot of ground down the right while our lot seemed to be waiting for an offside whistle that never came. The cross came low into the box and was duly slotted in by Franco. Next they carved through the middle of our defence like a knife through butter or more rightly like a knife through shite before Cole struck home. Everyone was stunned but then we got the goal we needed three minutes later when Reid nonchalantly floated a free-kick into the net while Green stood there almost without flinching. It took me and most around me a second to realize it was a goal and then the place came alive again. In injury time Kenwyne was fouled and foolishly reacted by pushing down the culprit, receiving a straight red for his pains. The referee was very loudly booed as he went off.

It was good to see Monty on the pitch doing the ‘Grand in Your Hand’ draw during the break and we were also treated to a number of athletes practising volleyball, judo and badminton; something to do with the 2012 Olympics. I have to say that the female judo event was the most entertaining for me. Those young women were doing to each other what many in the crowd would like to have done to the referee if they had the chance. I’m sure we can imagine what Mr Bruce said to the lads at the break as they were transformed afterwards fighting for every ball and bursting forward down both flanks. Cana, as ever, was inspirational while Reid and Malbranque were very creative. The referee had made a number of very dodgy judgements particularly the non-awarding of free kicks when our players were fouled and there were loud chants of “You don’t know what you’re doing” and “You’re not fit to referee.” He was a lot nicer to us after that actually. We got the equalizer we deserved with fifteen minutes left and Cana started it in the middle of the park before Bent broke free down the right and crossed for Richardson to bundle it home. We could have won it as we had numerous chances but Bent must’ve picked up the finishing malaise that inflicted his team-mates on Tuesday because he didn’t have his shooting boots on today and really should have made better of three or four opportunities. West Ham too had several close efforts and Gordon made a number of great stops. Three minutes from time their number 14 inflicted a very dirty tackle and then remained on the ground for a few minutes perhaps hoping for some sympathy from the ref but this wasn’t forthcoming and when he was fit enough to stand, he was promptly red-carded. There were four minutes of added time and we continued to press but there was always the danger that we might concede one so most people seemed happy to come away with a draw in the end. Can we start with ten men next week and then maybe bring another one on if things are getting rough?

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