John Simkin Posted January 29, 2008 Share Posted January 29, 2008 One of the most important games of the season takes place on Wednesday: West Ham v Liverpool. The results have gone against West Ham in recent years. Although some of our best players are still out with injury, we are gradually developing an impressive team that still might end up in the top six. I was very impressed with West Ham in their last match against Manchester City. West Ham is developing the best defence it has had since I began watching them in the early 1960s. Once we get Ashton, Bellamy, Parker, Faubert and Dyer fully fit we will have a side to be proud of. Whereas, Liverpool's form has been poor recently (I don't think the foreigners enjoy playing on our winter grounds - that is probably the reason why Manchester City has been playing so bad recently). Liverpool cannot afford another 0-0 draw as it will increase the gap between Liverpool and the peoples' club, Everton. Liverpool will have to attack and this should play into the hands of West Ham. In the FA Cup Final I was only minutes away from being correct about the 3-2 scoreline. Hopefully, I will be more accurate this time. A 4-1 victory for West Ham. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 29, 2008 Share Posted January 29, 2008 You really should be on the stage Mr Simkin Re the match - We can expect to see predictable tactics - West Ham's cloggers will do their best to stop Liverpool from playing the superior football of which they are capable. Despite these sledgehammer efforts, and despite Liverpool's poor form, quality will prevail over the crude village football approach and Liverpool will win 2-0. Nice to see you have also started to support the Toffees John - I am sure their other supporter will welcome the company Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Gary Loughran Posted January 29, 2008 Share Posted January 29, 2008 The Hammers defence is excellent at the moment. I can't go back to the 60's for comparison, but it's definitely one of the best I've seen. Liverpool always have the edge on us. Last year they'd a terrible start and as I'd predicted to my Liverpool supporting wife a victory over West Ham would kick start the season. 2-0 I believe they won and it did indeed lift Liverpool from their torpor. Despite a poor home record West Ham, inspired by Ashton's domination of the 'Pools weak back line, win 2v1. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Simkin Posted January 29, 2008 Author Share Posted January 29, 2008 Nice to see you have also started to support the Toffees John - I am sure their other supporter will welcome the company I do not support Everton. However, I do favour them over Liverpool because they are owned and run by long-standing Everton fans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 29, 2008 Share Posted January 29, 2008 Nice to see you have also started to support the Toffees John - I am sure their other supporter will welcome the company I do not support Everton. However, I do favour them over Liverpool because they are owned and run by long-standing Everton fans. Interesting observation - which of the London clubs was it again you support? I thought it was the one owned by the Icelandic cod merchants but perhaps I was mistaken Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Simkin Posted January 30, 2008 Author Share Posted January 30, 2008 Nice to see you have also started to support the Toffees John - I am sure their other supporter will welcome the company I do not support Everton. However, I do favour them over Liverpool because they are owned and run by long-standing Everton fans. Interesting observation - which of the London clubs was it again you support? I thought it was the one owned by the Icelandic cod merchants but perhaps I was mistaken It is indeed owned by a foreigner. But the managerial and coaching staff are British. So also are most of the players. Eggert Magnússon and Björgólfur Guðmundsson made it clear from the start that they would maintain West Ham traditions and appointed several former players to the staff: Alan Curbishley (manager), Mervyn Day (first-team coach), Kevin Keen (reserve team manager), etc. Tony Carr, born in Bow, a former West Ham player, has run the Academy since 1973. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Simkin Posted January 30, 2008 Author Share Posted January 30, 2008 Re the match - We can expect to see predictable tactics - West Ham's cloggers will do their best to stop Liverpool from playing the superior football of which they are capable. Despite these sledgehammer efforts, and despite Liverpool's poor form, quality will prevail over the crude village football approach and Liverpool will win 2-0. West Ham 1 Liverpool 0 I will pick up the £5 at the meeting in Bratislava. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 30, 2008 Share Posted January 30, 2008 Re the match - We can expect to see predictable tactics - West Ham's cloggers will do their best to stop Liverpool from playing the superior football of which they are capable. Despite these sledgehammer efforts, and despite Liverpool's poor form, quality will prevail over the crude village football approach and Liverpool will win 2-0. West Ham 1 Liverpool 0 I will pick up the £5 at the meeting in Bratislava. Too scared to double up for March 5th then? Your boys fulfilled my prediction above for most of the match this evening and then got lucky with some quite outrageous refereeing decisions. I'd like to say they deserved to win but unlike the cup final of a couple of years ago they did not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles Drago Posted January 30, 2008 Share Posted January 30, 2008 You guys slay me! It's Super Bowl week, and we're supposed to care about poofters in knee pants scrumming their ways to manhood? Do you know the Python bit about the Greek and German philosophers having at it on the pitch? Confucius was the ref. Confucius say, "Name go in book." Wait a minute! Aristotle has an idea! Pass to Pythagoras! Upfield to Plato! Wittgenstein seems ... otherwise abosrbed ... He scoooooooooooores! Rorke's Drift was the exception that proved the rule. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Simkin Posted February 1, 2008 Author Share Posted February 1, 2008 West Ham just about deserved their 1-0 win. They made more chances. Two of them fell to Boa Morte who badly missed. West Ham also hit the bar. Green only had to make one save and that shot appeared to be going wide. Over the last two seasons we have beaten the top four six times. Only Chelsea remain to be beaten. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles Drago Posted February 1, 2008 Share Posted February 1, 2008 Only Chelsea remain to be beaten. But when will Hillary and Bill find the time? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 1, 2008 Share Posted February 1, 2008 Only Chelsea remain to be beaten. But when will Hillary and Bill find the time? Keep working on the sense of humour. I am sure you will get there in the end. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Simkin Posted February 1, 2008 Author Share Posted February 1, 2008 Your boys fulfilled my prediction above for most of the match this evening and then got lucky with some quite outrageous refereeing decisions.I'd like to say they deserved to win but unlike the cup final of a couple of years ago they did not. From the Guardian report on the game: http://football.guardian.co.uk/Match_Repor...2249628,00.html West Ham were abrasive, awkward and admirable but neither scintillating nor suffocating and, had Fredrik Ljungberg or Luis Boa Morte shown more composure at the far post, they would have eased well ahead long before Liverpool mustered their late rally. Add to that Steve Finnan flicking a Mark Noble free-kick on to his own bar with José Reina stranded and Boa Morte somehow scooping a first-half shot over the bar from point-blank range, and the visitors' performance is put into better context. They fairly lie just behind the cluster of clubs hoping for Uefa Cup qualification. The Times http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/foo...icle3280126.ece Is this the way it will end for Rafael Benítez, with a bang and a whimper? The bang was Jamie Carragher’s crass connection with Fredrik Ljungberg that gave Mark Noble an opportunity to score the winning penalty that he embraced with aplomb. The whimper was Liverpool’s performance. “Let’s talk about football,” Benítez had said before last night’s match. It proved a dangerous statement, given a result and display as bad as this. Poring over the club’s balance sheets would have been less painful. The defeat, as the Liverpool manager noted, was down to a mistake by one of the club’s most reliable players as West Ham United broke on the counter-attack. But the foul was a direct consequence of Liverpool leaving too few players back, which was caused by their desperation to find a goal that should have been scored long before. There was an iota of possibility that Liverpool might win when Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres finally tuned into the same wavelength late in the second half, but despite Benítez picking arguably his strongest available line-up, this was a team lacking cohesion, confidence and sustained threat; insipid not inventive. After their poor recent form, Liverpool needed tempo. They produced tedium. The Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtm...1/sfgwes231.xml The harsh realities are that Liverpool have drawn as many games as they have won, they are 17 points behind leaders Manchester United, three points behind fourth-placed Everton and a point outside the Uefa Cup qualifying positions. Had West Ham's Luis Boa Morte taken at least one of his chances, the outcome could have been determined earlier than the final minute... West Ham responded in the 22nd minute when Liverpool's indecision allowed Boa Morte his first opportunity, but the Portuguese squandered the chance, sending it high over the target. Five minutes later, West Ham's revival from an insipid start continued when Noble's free-kick took a deflection off Benayoun and bounced onto the Liverpool bar. Now it was Liverpool who appeared anxious. Boa Morte wasted two more chances in the second half, one a wonderful opportunity in the 57th minute, and his subsequent substitution was greeted with applause. Daily Mirror http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/topstories/2...89520-20304532/ Rafa Benitez can forget all of his hard-luck stories - Liverpool got exactly what they deserved. West Ham midfielder Mark Noble's coolly-taken winning penalty deep into the third minute of stoppage time was a heartbreaker for Liverpool. But do not let that hide the fact that Liverpool were absolutely awful and could manage only one shot on target all night. Liverpool are now a staggering 17 points behind the Premier League leaders and have now slumped to seventh... And if West Ham's finishing had been as good as FA Cup heroes Havant and Waterlooville then the defeat would have been even more comprehensive. But West Ham were hopelessly wasteful all night with Luis Boa Morte in particular the worst culprit and it was no surprise that he got booed off when he was substituted. Boa Morte blazed over a glorious chance in the 22nd minute as West Ham started much the better and Liverpool never seemed to be able to gain a foothold on the game. The closest West Ham came in open play was in the 27th minute when man-of-the-match Noble saw a deflected free-kick crash against the bar. and http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/topstories/2...89520-20304534/ So Much for foreign bosses taking the plaudits from English managers in the Premier League. This was a victory crafted in east London and built on hard work, team spirit and a unity that Liverpool just do not have at the moment. Under Rafael Benitez, the Reds are dropping like a stone and his position looks untenable under the club's American owners. Under Alan Curbishley, West Ham are going places, having seen off Manchester United this season and done the double over both United and Arsenal last term. Under Curbishley, West Ham are heading firmly into the European mix, having lost just three times in their last 15 matches. Under Curbishley's calm stewardship only the so-called Big Four have conceded fewer than the 21 League goals they have let in so far this season. We do like to shout from the rooftops about the almost mystical powers of the men from overseas but Curbishley is redressing the balance this season, moulding the sum of his parts together to produce a tough, battle-hardened outfit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 1, 2008 Share Posted February 1, 2008 I am more discerning in my reading http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/match/last_match/match_report/ From your comments on this thread I am not sure you were tuned to the right Chinese satellite station the other night Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Simkin Posted February 2, 2008 Author Share Posted February 2, 2008 I am more discerning in my readinghttp://www.liverpoolfc.tv/match/last_match/match_report/ From your comments on this thread I am not sure you were tuned to the right Chinese satellite station the other night I actually watched the game on Liverpool FC TV. Here is an account from the objective BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/e...rem/7210594.stm Mark Noble's injury-time penalty gave West Ham a deserved victory over Liverpool at Upton Park. Noble slotted the ball low past Pepe Reina with virtually the last kick of the match after Jamie Carragher had brought down Freddie Ljungberg. Earlier, West Ham's Luis Boa Morte twice missed from six yards out while Xabi Alonso headed on to his own bar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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