Sheffield Utd-The Blades In The Trap?

Long suffering Hammers supporters, old and young, are only too aware of their team's propensity of giving clubs below them a helping hand when it comes to 'breaking their duck', this 'act of genorosity' is usually preceeded on the back of a couple of decent results against 'top' opposition!

If football clubs are guilty of being previous offenders, then West Ham would rank highest or there abouts when it comes to repeatedly being gubbed by teams that the 'pundits' feel should have been easily dealt with, and you know, the annoying thing is that they are correct in their appraisal.

David Moyes is not a typical 'arty farty' Hammers manager, he neither covets publicity nor shies away from it, he comes across as dour, sometimes humourless, but he is on a mission. Having been sent to the top of olympus, only to be discarded from it's heights, Moyes has been of a journey of redemption, the course of which has not been smooth to put it mildly, ill conceived spells in charge of Santander and then Sunderland did little to enhance his reputation.

Finally, arriving at the Bowl of Misery in the middle of a relegation crisis, Moyes was able to be re-born, however the Gods had a little caveat for him to overcome in the form of the 'preening' Manuel Pellegrini, who's services were sought instead of the ex Preston, Everton and Manchester United manager.

Having watched from near and afar Pellegrini squandering vast amounts of money on 'luxury' and also inept players, (Pablo Fornals, Issa Diop and Fabian Bulbuena excluded), Moyes bided his time before the inevitable call came to rescue the club from relegation AGAIN! This task Moyes achieved despite all the odds and was finally rewarded with a 'worthy' contract, albeit a relatively short term one.

Now that Moyes is fully in charge and has a back room staff he believes in, he has made his intentions known that he wants to build something special and turn West Ham United in to the team that they should have been for years. Part of that process is to dismantle the 'flaky' outcomes of matches in the past that the club should have won but frittered away, usually against clubs occupying lower league positions, or giant killers in the Cups.

If David Moyes can get his squad to finally believe in themselves, and not fold like pansies when put under pressure, then he will have gone a long way down the torturous football manager's road to redemption, a wounded and desperate Sheffield United await, usually the type of prime candidates to give the Irons a kicking, especially bearing in mind the teams respective Barclays Premier League positions

Sunday's game against Sheffield will most definitely NOT be pretty, but it is one of those seminal games, in a similar way to the Spurs game, that can have a massive impact on how the season unfolds, 'powder puff Hammers, or men of steel, if the latter turn up then a well earned point or even more could be on the cards, if the former turn up, the Irons will be 'toast' to have along with a strong brew! - Ed