Hi guys, Got back just after midnight so thought I'd leave it to this morning to summarise, but then I overslept. Anyway... Ratings: Davis - 9 - Solid throughout, made a couple of saves, didn't let Cole intimidate him as he attempted to on every corner, often throwing himself at Kelvin without looking at the ball. Richardson - 7 - Decent until he went off with a slight strain, got forward but most crosses were dealt with. Fonte - 7 - Partnered Hooiveld very well and won the majority of the balls. Did let a few bounce over his head though, brought the ball out and got the ball rolling from the back. Hooiveld - 9 - My MOTM, nullified Cole as Jos won most of the headers, as well as being able to bring the ball down and start the players. 1 small error where he tried to shield the ball for Davis in a dangerous area but he cleared it when he realised. Oh, and he scored. Fox - 7 - Similar to Richardson. His crosses were a bit more dangerous, and he got forward when he could. Do Prado - 6 - Decent enough, put a shift in, not his greatest game, not his worst. Cork - 8 - Worked hard in the middle of the park, his passing was off at times, trying to play through balls that weren't working, but he fought hard for the ball and didn't surrender easily. Schneiderlin - 7 - Did well bringing the ball out from the back and starting some attacks. Passing first half was off and played Faubert in a couple of times with lazy passing. Lallana - 8 - He's getting back to his best. Creative, twisting and turning the opponents all over the place, a couple of shots which made Green think and a couple of through balls that just bounced away from Sharp. Got stuck in but he did dive and deserved his yellow card. Lambert - 6 - Was quiet in this game, but when you are as influential as Rickie you can be forgiven, lots of pushing and pulling which made it harder for him to get his head to the ball. Sharp - 6 - Did well bringing the ball up the field and outmuscling West Ham but missed an absolute sitter and struggled to get shots off. Puncheon - 7 - Came on and got involved, playing some neat short passes between himself, Lallana and Fox, whipped a couple of crosses in which resulted in corners. Connolly - 6 - Didn't really have much impact on the game but chased everything. Hammond - Not really on the pitch long enough but shored things up and broke down the off late West Ham play. Referee - Probert - 6 - Let a lot of pushing on Saints go, got the call for Lallana's dive right, but missed the dive for West Ham's penalty, several soft fouls given against Saints and West Ham's players were more than happy to hug the grass for a good minute or so to waste time. West Ham - Direct? Yes. 2nd best? Yes. In fact they were the better team until the red card, which is one of the stupidest I have seen. No clue why he got involved. Lots of aimless balls towards Cole or whacked out wide for Faubert/Vaz Te to gallop after. They epitomise everything bad about football for me personally. As is the norm with these sort of sides, they were the first to complain about unfair play despite flattening some of our players, Cole in particular who jumped into Davis twice with no intent of getting the ball. Lots of diving too from Vaz Te, who took the ball to the corner at around the 70 minute mark. The Fans - Saints fans were in fine voice, however I was a little disappointed by the West Ham fans. They like to hype up their support but only sang 3 songs! "We are top the league! Say we are top the league!" / "10 men, we've only got ten men!" / "I'm forever blowing bubbles!" - which has to be played over the tannoy for the majority of the song. We really touched a nerve with "Football! You used to play football! You used to play football! You used to play football! Football!" - for a club calling themselves the "Academy of Football", I hope we don't get too many players in the current set-up's mould. Oh and Big Sam prattling on about it not being a red, I refer you to today's newspapers: please log in to view this image please log in to view this image On a sad final note, if any Hammers fans who were on Barking platform at 22:30 last night read this, your songs about the Munich Air Disaster, Hillsborough and Gary Speed were disgusting and disgraceful to say the least. DTLW
As for Allardyce - get your facts right before accusing a Saints player of cheating! Clear red card based on the photos! Allardyce is a complete twat
One of our players did cheat, Lallana. And he got booked for it, rightfully so and the correct decision. Allardyce winds me up.
stupid of them to say it was not a red card, if you raise your hands in anger then you run the risk of an early bath
Yes, but he accused Sharp by saying he was pushed in the chest and went down holding his face - that was what I was referring to. I agree that Lallana dived.
I bloody love Danny Fox, always gets in the thick of the action. Whenever there's a red card you will be sure to find Fox in the picture. Agree, with your ratings. As soon as they were down to 10 men, we were quiet exceptional in that period towards half-time. The movement and passing was excellant, shame Sharp didn't take his chance and Lambert free-kick and shot couldn't find the back of the net. Second half I felt we dominated but lacked the final ball/shot, I am sure if we were to see the passing stats we gave a lot of ball away which gave West Ham a bit of hope on the counter. Due to this, we couldn't get the best out of Lambert but thankfully he still managed to find Hooiveld for the goal. The atmosphere was electric in the away end, loved every minute. As DTLW said, West Ham were surprisngly poor and when they got going they were so out of tune, one stand would be a verse ahead of the other stand. The aftermath of the game has been disgraceful, the abuse Sharp and Hooiveld received on twitter was awful. Jos was even honest about certain situations and got showered in abuse, Sharp was significantly worse, mainly West Ham fans who seem not to understand the rule of not raising your hands on your opponent. All I know is Sharp is going to be well up for Derby to make ammends, he wants his goal!!
On that note it reminds me of when Fox went to take a throw 2nd half on the half-way line. They held onto the ball before finally giving it to him accompanied by abuse, as he picked the ball up he turned away from the pitch and while holding the ball and cleaning it on his shirt with his right hand his left hand slipped to the bottom of his shirt, he grabbed part of his shirt but it was quite clear he was giving them a W*n*er sign with his left hand. They all jumped out their seats doing it back and going rabid at him! Nice one Foxy.
Haha I too love foxy's passion and when he gives the home support some stick back!! Thought Lallana was a class act last night and fonte and Hoover dealt with cole and their hoof ball well. Guly was just utter ****. Lambo quiet and sharp unlucky. Good point.
Davis - 8 Richardson - 8 Fonte - 6 Hooiveld - 9 MOTM Fox - 7 Guly - 6 Cork - 6 Schneiderlin - 7 Lallana - 9 Lambert - 7 Sharp - 6 Puncheon - 7 Connolly - 6
I expect Allardyce is playing mind games, like Ferguson does. If he really does not think Taylor should have been sent off then he can appeal at the risk of lengthening the ban...
On KUMB they're still moaning about Sharp "playacting" because he went down with his hands on his face and not his throat...Because apparently choking isnt a red card offence...<sarcasm>
Danny fox is quickly becoming one of my favorite players such a top lad wears his heart on his sleeve
Do you suspect it was an attempt at sarcasm aimed at the Referee for falling for the Noble effort? Silly but a good pointmaker!
