Schyzophrenic Hammers In Need Of Therapy

West Ham United's line up for the Watford match was impressive, and despite the odd early warning sign everything was going to plan for the first 40 minutes. Two goals from Michail Antonio, the second a work of art created by Dimitri Payet seemed to have set Hammers on route for a resounding victory, and then the ginger pele had a moment of madness by dispossessing his own keeper and giving the ball to the opposition who promptly scored! Two minutes later, another catastrophic error, this time by Winston Reid, saw the visitors score again and turn the game round on it's head. Hammers cause wasn't helped when new signing ZaZa, eager to impress the home crowd found himself in the referee's book for a relatively needless challenge early in the match, after that he looked a bit of a busted flush, unable to exert his physical presence for fear of picking up a second yellow.
When the second half started it looked like there was only going to be one winner and that was Watford, having been handed the initiative at the end of the first half they continued as they left off and proceeded to silence the home crowd by constantly threatening West Ham's fragile defence, every time they sent a ball over the top they looked like scoring, in fact had it not been for some heroic keeping by Adrian the score could have and should have been a lot worse!
It is easy to be wise after the event, so perhaps it would be churlish to suggest that Slaven Billic was naive in putting out such an attack minded team, but for the early part of the match it was glorious, however from the get go Mark Noble looked ponderous, his usual positive play seemed to have been replaced by a scott parker/butch wilkins 'crab' style, but to his defence he did get clattered a few times and was not helped by an ineffectual limp wristed referee and his assistants. Noble was eventually subbed in the second half, he looked jaded and exhausted.....perhaps of all the team he actually DOES need a rest! Winston Reid, perhaps still suffering from 'elbow in the face syndrome' and James Collins were simply atrocious! Matters weren't helped any by the level of exposure they experienced, but having to cope with the elected attacking formation is something one would expect a modern professional footballer to do, sadly neither defender covered them selves in glory, with the 'ginger pele' Collins the main culprit! Apart form gifting the opposition their first goal, ginge looked fragile all afternoon, an accident waiting to happen, unfortunately this insecurity crept in to the entire defence who looked completely ragged by the end of a match which saw vast droves of fans leave early.
It can safely be assumed that Angelo Ogbona, who must have been tearing his hair out whist watching from the bench, will replace 'Ginge' for the next game against West Brom in what has become a crucial fixture if the events of the weekend are to be put to bed.
Finally, in what turned out to be a very negative experience for Hammers fans, there was the issue of stewarding. Why on earth the away fans were given such a large area behind the goals beggars belief, because it (a) means there is no segregation on the Trevor Brooking stand upper levels that adjoin where the away fans are located and (b) the opposition supporters are able to 'large it' and antagonise the home supporters as they make their way to and from the main concourse area where the concessionaires sell food and drink.
A wholesale restructuring of the away end is not only desirable but essential if a nasty incident is to be avoided, because quite frankly the current stewarding set up appears to be completely overwhelmed when a situation begins to develop, and there were certainly quite a few of those yesterday!
It's not all doom and gloom. last season, which is acknowledged as one of the best in many years, began with two extremely disappointing home results and two away wins, so things aren't really that different, maybe expectations were a little high moving in to the plush new stadium, well those hopes and dreams have come down to earth with a bump, it couldn't be any other way for West Ham could it? - Ed