LFL: WHU

Despite an improved second-half performance, the damage had been done in the first period when we were outplayed by a spirited West Ham side. They were much more up for it than we were and a combination of poor defending and great finishing cost us dearly. Xhaka was of course a miss so let’s hope he’s back asap.   

BEFORE

Following two wins and with all of our AFCON players back, though a couple are injured, I'm in a positive mood about this afternoon's match. I admire Nuno Espirito Santo but he hasn't managed to breathe much life into West Ham, though they did get a late winner against Spurs last weekend. We beat them fairly comfortably in the first match of the season and I think we'll get at least a point this afternoon. Bowen looked very impressive in that match and maybe he'll be picked up by another club in this transfer window. I'll be watching the game in the company of other members of the London Branch and am really looking forward to it. Match prediction: 2-1 to us.

I got to the venue just before midday and realised that the game wasn’t starting till 12.30, and not 12.15 as I’d thought. Anyway, on checking the team-news I saw that the rumours were true and that Xhaka wasn’t in the squad due to injury. Mayenda was starting and Hume was captain. Diarra and Talbi were both on the bench, which was great news, while Neil was nowhere to be seen. It seems likely that he’ll be off very soon and if so, I wish him all the best as he clearly doesn’t feature in our current set-up and needs to get on with his career. There were about ten of the Faithful in the bar as the match kicked off.   

THE GAME

We had a great chance in the second minute when a powerful Sadiki shot was tipped over by Areola in goal. We didn’t make anything from the corner and for the next five minutes or so West Ham probably edged it in terms of attacking without creating a chance. In the thirteenth minute Alderete was in the right place to head a dangerous ball out for a throw on our right but in the next minute we were behind when a Bowen cross from our left was strongly headed home by Summerville giving Roefs no chance. We were soon back on the counterattack and a Hume header was just over the bar. I thought we’d be two-down when Ballard failed to intercept in our box but a shot from Pablo went over. In the twenty-first a Ballard header went narrowly wide of their right post and I felt that we’d get the equaliser before too long.

However, in the twenty-sixth West Ham were awarded a penalty when Hume was adjudged to have brought down Scarles. He certainly 'bought' the foul but it was silly from our defender to leave his leg dangling in the box. Bowen took the kick and put it into our bottom-left corner. Roefs guessed the right way, but the pen was inch-perfect and just out of his reach. Things weren’t looking too good but we had an hour to fight back. Ballard was yellow-carded not long afterwards.

West Ham won a corner in the thirty-first and Roefs fisted it away. We hadn’t managed to get much going in attack for ages and were relying too much on long balls. Reinildo joined Ballard in referee Thomas Bramall’s book for a foul on Bowen but at least we survived the resultant free-kick which was in a very dangerous spot. In the forty-third we were three-down when Fernandes received a rebound well outside our box and blasted a great shot into our top-right corner that Roefs dived to reach but couldn’t quite get there. It was looking like game over before half-time but never say die! It was 3-0 as the half-time whistle went. West Ham had been first to the ball all over the pitch and we hadn’t really got going but I hoped that Regis would pull something out of the bag and we could rescue a point. We were certainly in need of a reshuffle as Brobbey and Mayenda had seen very little of the ball.

When the teams re-emerged for the second-half we had indeed made changes with Cirkin, Talbi and Diarra having replaced Reinildo, Mundle and Hume. We were battling more than we had earlier on but our passing was often dodgy. We won a corner in the fifty-eighth but poor passing again made the chance break down. Next thing a Ballard header gave West Ham another corner from which Fernandes shot well wide. Taty had a decent shot on target in the sixty-fourth but Roefs managed to gather it without difficulty. We hadn’t looked like scoring in the second period and time was running away. I must have typed the magic words as we immediately scored with a great goal. A rapid move down our right fed Mukiele who put a cross in that was headed home by Brobbey. That brought a lot of much-needed joy to the bar.

We kept up the pressure and I could hear a lot of racket in the stadium, presumably from our fans. Taty was booked, which evened that department up a bit. In the seventy-fourth we brought on Isidor for Mayenda, who’d hardly had a sniff. Sadiki was booked with ten minutes to go but we survived the free-kick. Could we at least get another goal back to improve our goal-difference? I thought we could but a skied shot from Isidor wasn’t going to help. Then we brought on O’Nien for Mukiele, who didn’t look happy about something.

Luke almost got one back when his shot from the right angle of their box hit the top of the post and had Areola very worried. There was some kind of argy-bargy going on with home fans siting to the rear of our bench but I couldn’t see what was happening. Anyway, back on the pitch Ballard conceded a very late corner and four minutes of added-time were announced. From the corner a Fernandes shot hit the bar and Roefs was almost pushed over the line with the ball in his hands. In the meantime, Alderete had totally ignored the ball to square up to their defender on our goal line. Chaos! The whistle soon went and we’d lost 3-1.