Scoreline Flattered Hapless Irons

With so much riding on the result Hammers fans expected a lot from their side for the trip to face Palace at Selhurst Park, instead they saw an insipid and uninspiring performance. The 4-3 scoreline does not truly reflect the game, as the home side could have won 7-1 had they taken all their chances!

David Moyes' side were 2nd best in ALL aspects of the game and were lucky to escape a hammering, essentially they were so battered by Palace you expected Uncle Woy to have opened up a 'retirement fish bar'. West Ham went ahead with an extremely rare Tomy Soucek goal, but the away fans joy was short lived as Palace equalled vis Jordan Ayew, who else? The player is a serial scorer against the Irons and didn't he know it as his celebrations attested to!

From then on Hammers usual robust defence capitulated, losing Kurt Zouma early on didn't help matters and The Og(bonna) was strong when he came on as Zoo's replacement but there was little he could do to help his wayward team mates. All three of Palace's goals to take the score to 3-1 were defensive errors, the sort not normally associated with a West Ham defence (Newcastle game apart).

Hammers scored through THREE set pieces by the end of the game but few chances were created from open play, the team looked extremely 'leggy' throughout the entire game. Even the forced substitutions were to little effect as Moyes brought on Said Benrahma and Aaron Cresswell at the start of the second half in an attempt at shoring up the porous defence that had conceded three goals in the first half. Perhaps this abject showing was as a result of accumulatied tiredness due to the insane NINE games in 27 days schedule the club were forced to endure.

This result put a SERIOUS dent in Hammers Premier League survival hopes, fortunately both Forest and Wolves were beaten today otherwise the situation could have been a whole lot worse! The loss means the dreadful scenario of a final day battle against relegation could become a distinct reality. The last home fixture is against Leeds United and the final game of the season away to Leicester, the last thing needed is the need to score ANY points on the last day of the season.

IF the team CAN find a way to get three points in the penultimate game against Leeds, then that should be enough to scrape through to next season, because realistically there isn't a hope in hell of points at the Etihad and the forces of evil will somehow conspire to let the other Manchester club get all three points at the unnamed Stratford Stadium.

The away game against Brentford is also unlikely to yield any points and there are also TWO semi final 'Con Cup' games to be played against AZ that have to be negotiated. Plenty of games left to succeed or fail, the club's fate is really on a knife edge, more performances like today's and fans might well have to start looking up locations like Rotherham to see where the club will be playing next season! - Ed