Fair Play To Sunderland & Big Sam! Plus All The West Ham Fans

Three points in the bag doesn't really sum up yesterday's narrow 1-0 victory over Sunderland in the Black Cat's final visit to the Boleyn Ground, prior to the match there was much made of Sam Allardyce's return to the club he managed for four years and the type of reception that he would receive. Fortunately Allardyce was given 'polite' applause which disappointed those in the media who wanted to project West Ham as a club with deluded owners and ungrateful fans, in fact the only boos and jeering were directed at ex-Hammer Jermaine Defoe, who was poorly guided when he slapped in a transfer request just moments after Hammers were relegated under Glenn Roeder.
West Ham's co-owners, their manager, the players and the fans ensured that there was no bad feelings, Big Sam was obviously receptive as can be seen by his twitter comments on Sunday morning with the message: "Want to thank all the West Ham fans who gave me a good reception yesterday! Thoroughly enjoyed my time at the club & wish them all the best." Allardyce also signed autographs at half time and made a smiling cameo whilst depriving Aaron Creswell of the ball on the touch line for a throw in. All in all it was a good day for everyone, except for the Sunderland supporters who had to get up at the crack of dawn for the early kick off only to see their team outplay the opposition but still lose.
West Ham will really have to up their game if they are going to get anything from Wednesday evening's derby against high flying Tottenham, Slaven Billic described the performance and the crowd as 'a little flat', this he put down to the fact that the game kicked off so early, the Boleyn at night is a different story and West Ham owe Tottenham a tonking as they are the only team to have comprehensively beaten the club all season! - Ed