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Ugly Scenes At The Ironic Stadium As Fans Protest And West Ham Lose

nevillenixon's picture
Submitted by nevillenixon on Sat, 10/03/2018 - 18:07

The packed London (ironic not iconic) Stadium crowd expected their team to put a shift in, and during the first half they did despite Joe Hart looking like a rabbit stuck in the headlights. His selection raised more than a few eyebrows and his name was met with boos when the team was read out, he looked hopelessly lacking in confidence, and that feeling spread, firstly among the crowd but as time wore on it got to his team mates as well.

Hammers were as bad in the second half as they were good in the first and Burnley just ran riot, as soon as the first allowed goal went in Hammers disintegrated allowing Burnley's sub two score an additional two goals within minutes of each other to send the vast majority of the crowd home early leaving the stadium virtually empty apart from the jubilant away fans and some hard core very angry Hammers fans chanting 'sack the board'.

The worst part of a day that was supposed to be a tribute to Bobby Moore was the action of several mindless so called fans, just as West Ham were about to kick off following Burnley's first goal a mindless moron or two invaded the pitch, their continued presence served as a complete distraction and only served to give Burnley the advantage of re-organising. It is common knowledge that teams are most vulnerable when they have just scored, so any chance of a swift come back was thwarted by the pitch invasion.

Unfortunately one image that is bound to appear will be that of Hammers' captain Mark Noble taking matters in to his own hands or fists actually and punched and kicked one of the 'fans' that had evaded capture by the lackadaisical stewards, he was angry and rightly so because by the time things had died down it was Burnley who were in the ascendancy. The crowd's anger continued undissipated with large sections towards the end of the match assembling near the directors box that eventually forced David Sullivan and David Gold to leave only Sir Trevor Brooking in the executive seats! There were also some fans having a running fight with stewards as they attempted to 'get at' the owners despite the large number of young fans in the proximity.

The club have issued the following :
West Ham United club statement: "West Ham United have immediately launched a full and thorough investigation into the incidents which marred the second half of today's match and are committed to taking decisive and appropriate action. "An emergency meeting has been called with all London Stadium stakeholders. There will be no further comment at this time."

This is not the end, but it seems like the beginning of the end, dark days indeed. - Ed

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Comments

I dont think its ever happened before owners fleeing for their own safety, good ridens i say they torn this club apart and things will never be the same ,i hope they never show their faces again ,i duno why some of you are angry surley it was.obvious their would be protests ,hasn't everyone been calling for their removal ? .
Lookat they must have know that if things went tits up it would be.their necks on the line ,football clubs are not billionaires toys let them fuck off and take up fishing for a hobby

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207 users have voted.

Burkie 1

metbobby1's picture

that Sullivan has fled to Siberia so he can NOT look a d******d in that ridiculous hat!!

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202 users have voted.
metbobby1's picture

Had Mason given the blatant penalty in the first half, then things could have been so different. What was the point in splashing out £9m on Hugill, other than some sort of placation, just to have him sit on the bench???

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183 users have voted.

I saw Sullivan doing his best Kim Jong un impression on motd. Very convincing it is too. Spitting image. The pitch invasion looked a bit blown out of proportion. I just can't feel any sympathy for anyone both on or off the pitch who are involved with the last 2 years demolition of our club. Infact I think fans have been more than patient. For me it shows they just can't sit there and take it on the chin anymore. Maybe the only real sign of old West Ham unfortunately

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180 users have voted.
Essexhammer's picture

£9m for a player who hasn't had a sniff yet...absolute madness.The amount of money this club have wasted on transfers,,,unbelievable.
Sullivan's recent explanation discussing the intentions the board have of making improvements within the club
https://youtu.be/iFaXjxZ-hnQ
....all sounds good,but we have heard it all before.Let's hope we are still in the premiership to see if they back
up these promises.
After todays debacle on and off the pitch the club has sunk even lower on the footballing stage,and we all
know who is ultimately responsible.
I have read from a "reliable" source that Moyes has only six players that he deems worthy of keeping on
,he is looking to have a major clearout and that funds of £60-75 m will be made available,
not including sale of any players.Thing is that isn't going to make much of an impression if half the squad needs
replacing .To get a decent player nowadays that will make a big impression on the first team you are looking at
£25m plus ,that was the price of Arnautovic ,and he has shown (finally)why he has got that price tag .But how can we
attract players of that quality when we have such a black cloud over the club? I still do not think the owners
can push us to the next level,they are just too thrifty and penny pinching,and with their intention of buying
the stadium that transfer budget is still very much in the air.I honestly think this club will be limping along as we are, whilst these owners are in control

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155 users have voted.
albyforeverirons.'s picture

and unfortunately I can't see that happening, not with what is happening at the moment. I understand the crowd being pissed off but to run onto the pitch and disrupt the game like that shows that some would be fans are complete morons and should be banned. Everyone knew something was going to happen when the march was organised and then cancelled. The thing for me is I agreed with the march, show your discontent, but leave it outside the ground, fair enough sing the chants and all but to run onto the field and abuse the owners in front of the world just make us look like a bunch of fools and hooligans, no wonder we have turned from everyone's second favourite team to a team that everyone loves to hate. If we do stay up what sort of players are going to come to the London toxic stadium, journeyman and shit because why would you want to play where the fans pitch invade and have a go at the team captain who even though I think he is slowing down is still Mr West Ham and still gives his all. Those fans yesterday should have a hard look at themselves and wonder if they will be allowed back in the stadium because cameras are everywhere and not many covered their faces.

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169 users have voted.

Who would want to come journey men or sh1t? Well it's a good job that's not want we have been buying before the incidents. How many went on the pitch? 4, and none were threatening. As for confronting the board, is it more important to be seen as compliant rather than make your point known? By the way how many fans invaded the pitch at Man city Wigan game, and they threatened players. As for noble, he was the one that attacked the fan. Not the other way round.

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183 users have voted.
albyforeverirons.'s picture

And that's why we are in this trouble, the point I am saying is confront the board but do it outside the stadium, we all know that when the fans are with the team it drives them on, if I was a player in this game I would be thinking why bother. The best way to get the point across and for most it would be hard, Just don't go to the game, travelling fans go to away games but show your disgust in the board by hitting them where it hurts most, at the turnstiles. If only ten or fifteen thousand turn up then they will see what it's going to be when we are relegated, like many have said before if we go down it will be impossible to keep the likes of Arno, Lanzini, Antonio and even the young players like Rice now that he has had a taste of the premier league would be hard pressed to stay.
As for Noble having a go at the fuxxwit that confronted him on the pitch, look at his interview on BBC sport, I don't blame him mate, that sort of stoppage changes everything and I think he had the right to stand up as captain and player and have a go at the mug. What did the mug achieve other than probably a lifetime ban. Morale in the team looks very low at the moment and things like that won't help.

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146 users have voted.
mcbikeman's picture

David Moyes claiming the players are fighting hard for points really lol....and poor old noble mr west ham saying its hard to play in such an atmosphere pfff about time the players did something about changing it.

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195 users have voted.

Two consequences flow from yesterday. First , the demonstrators have made it abundantly clear that from their own personal perspective they want a change of ownership. So I assume they feel they have achieved their objective. ( But they shouldn't necessarily assume they speak for those fans who didn't invade the pitch or demonstrate - they may or may not). Second , the club will now be relegated. That might have happened anyway with a fragile team but is now almost certain. That brings with it an exodus of talented players , an inability to attract the most talented players and managers , reduced TV income and much reduced attendances. Plus the possibility of a Leeds , Charlton etc never coming back to the premiership. My assumption is that in weighing their actions up beforehand the demonstrators decided making their views known about the owners in that way was worth significantly increasing the risk of relegation.

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200 users have voted.

Although a good post west enclosure, I'd say they had probably given up all hope of such a fragile team doing anything other than spiral toward relegation. Attract quality? Well you can only attract quality if the owners wish it to be so. Evidence suggest they want you to think they do while making the opposite come true. I'm afraid this comes down to a lot more than just whether we play in the prem or not. It's a lot deeper.

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182 users have voted.

To secure relegation,to do a portsmouth,to get rid of these owners...i dont necessarily agree with their actions but theyve had enough like most of us have...say what you like about the actions of fans,but come on a board that rips up 110 years of history for a fake dream??it was always on the cards!!

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168 users have voted.

You may well be right that relegation is the actual aim. " Doing a Portsmouth " would involve successive relegations to League 2 , numerous administrations with serious points deductions , almost going into liquidation and a succession of dodgy foreign owners. And even now the club is not owned by the fans.

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185 users have voted.

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