Just like your dreams, they fade and die.... and so, like so many pretty bubbles in the air, did our League Cup dreams for yet another season.

With the papers full of Brucey’s guff about wrapping Benty in cotton wool for the upcoming league games, and really wanting to win a cup, we were treated to a performance so far removed from the effort, shape, and determination of Saturday that you wonder if you’re watching the same team.

Well, strictly speaking we weren’t, as we lined up
Ming
Bardsley Ferdy Onouah Rico
Almo Hendo Riveros Wellbeck
Bent Gyan

Well, I think Wellbeck was on the left of midfield, but he spent an awful lot of time as a third front man. It was a family outing for me, with both the lads joining me for the first time in ages, and Ian’s intended as well, at her first ever game of any sort. I left it to the lad to explain the intricacies of the game, which seemed for the first fifteen minutes to consist of West Ham shooting every couple of minutes, but thankfully high and/or wide every time. An initially sparse crowd had eventually swelled to a respectable 21,000 plus, and, although it was Ming who was busier in collecting the odd cross, and commandingly a corner, it was their keeper, shamefully not Greenfingers Green, who made the first save when Bent was dispossessed in the box and Wellbeck fired one in low. A great tackle by Ferdy stopped West Ham in our box, then Almo completed a clearance with a lobbed pass over the top to Bent. His low cross was a foot in front of Gyan, and the chance was gone – but we were starting to play a bit. Not as much as Scott Parker, however, who bossed the midfield, and as part of a better side than the Hammers, would have destroyed us.

Bent and Gyan exchanged passed to force another save, then Rico flashed one across the face of the goal, but in midfield we gave the ball away, usually from Riveros, far too often. A couple of shots over the top from us, and Ming pulled out his first two saves just before the half our, in quick succession. Five minute later, our defence was split, and Pinquionne rounded the exposed Ming to score from a narrow angle for 1-0 West Ham. Within a minute they carved us open again, but the Belgian was equal to it this time. Onuoah headed just over from a corner, but five minutes before the break, Ferdy limped off to be replaced by Da Silva, and the Paraguayan raced forward to add his presence to a corner. Hhhm, we wondered, what’s the chance of a decent delivery? Well, that’s what we got, and Hendo found Gyan high at the front of goal and the header flashed high into the net. Whoo-hhoo, maybe we’d get a grip of this and get in front. To be fair to us, Hendo and Riveros prompted some good football in those last five minutes of the half, but couldn’t get the second goal.

No changes at the break, and it was us who showed first with Bardsley getting to the byline and finding Gyan, who fired over the top. He then knocked one over the top to Bent, who chose to take a touch rather than try a first time lob, and he was crowded out. On the hour West Ham broke down their right, Parker again instrumental, and the shot from inside the area was low and hard past Ming’s right hand from Obinna. We swapped Gyan for Steed, when most of the crowd thought it should have been Riveros, whose passing had gone from the sublime to the ridiculous all evening. Almo, having his own middle-eastern conflict with former loanee Ben Haim, was finding his range with his crossing, and a deep one found Wellbeck, who got it back in for Bent on the edge of the box, but the shot was under pressure and over the top. Hendo produced a nice flick over his man and got in a shot that was comfortably saved, then Bent and Wellbeck got in each others’ way as the latter wove towards the spot, and the ball was hacked away.

With twenty to go, Riveros survived our final substitution as Hendo, who’d been finding the odd decent pass and showing eventual willingness to go forward, and Zenden got the run-out he’d been waiting for. They brought on Dyer for Obinna, bravely expecting the ex-mag crock to last for twenty minutes, then Carlton Cole for Pinquionne to hold up the ball and stop us getting back into their half. We did manage to get forward, Bardsley involved again as a one-two with Bent saw the latter’s shot go just wide. With Rico crocked, the latter part of the game saw large spells where we had no-one on the left until Da Silva was thrown forward in the last ten in a desperate attempt to give Jen extra time at her first match. With a miserly three minutes added by Mr Webb, we were never going to manage it, and Jen had to understand that when we raise our game against a “big” team one day, we’ll almost certainly fail to match that performance a few days later when a supposedly easier game comes along. We weren’t as good as West Ham, and they deserved their win thanks to outplaying us in midfield.

Man of the Match? Nobody really impressed, despite Bardsley busting a gut to make things happen in the second half and Almo firing in crosses all night. Steed was his usual battling self, while Hendo took a while to get into the game. Riveros did not impress apart from in odd patches, while the defence showed that Bramble really has been a decent buy. Up front, Bent and Gyan’s double act still needs a lot of work, while Wellbeck seemed to be able to do anything but get a shot away at the right time. Ming put in another assured performance, and was probably the only player who you didn’t have a moan at on the night, so he can have it again.

Back to the league. Keep the faith.

Sobs

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