Our thoughts must be with Craig Bellamy and his family this evening. His wife gave birth to a baby girl five days ago but there have been complications. He said he wouldn’t be in the right frame of mind to play. What a terrible thing to happen, just as things were going so well for him football-wise. Let’s hope his daughter pulls through.

Could someone tell me why ITV screened a game of rugby between France and Argentina last night? I mean, what’s the point of watching a game when you want both sides to lose?

I’ve never really understood Rugby. I mean, if you really want to spend 80 minutes with your head between a man’s legs, or your hand up his crotch, why not just… [that's enough - Ed]

I am sure I am not alone in desperately wanting England to win today and on Wednesday, but on the other hand wanting rid of the muppet that calls himself the England Manager. It is unbelievable that he has kept faith with Paul Robinson, who must be among the worst England goalkeepers ever. And to recall Emile Heskey just defies rational thought. Watch him get a hat-trick now that I have written that!

It looks like we Hammers had better support Wales this afternoon. Their line-up is likely to include three Hammers (Gabbidon, Bellamy and Collins) and also Carl Fletcher. Anyone know how he is going at Palace?

Oh, and by the way, yes, I have changed the blog picture. The other one was taken in 2004, so you can see what three years’ blogging has done to me!

I used to sit in the East Stand Upper and one of the best things about sitting there was being able to observe Tim Breacker bursting down the right wing. He was a great player for the Hammers in the early to mid 1990s and I was sorry to see him leave for QPR. Anyone have memories of him they’d like to share, or know what he is up to nowadays?

Here’s tip about a new website which helps you find a hotel when you go to away matches. Match Hotels.com is HERE.

Nicky Shorey is on Golas on SUnday at the moment. He said all his family are Arsenal fans and he used to go and watch them as a kid. Quite where the idea came from that he is Hammer though and though I don’t know. I suppose it partly explains why he didn;t seem desperate to move to us.

Three nil to the cockney boys! Having seen the goals now I am even more encoraged by Etherington and Bellamy’s performances. If they can continue that sort of interlinking, we’re going to have a very enjoyable season.

Oh the joy. I am so glad I was wrong., I predicted 2-0 and it turned out to be 3-0. By all accounts it was a fantastic performance. Sky Sports said we could have had ten. And to think, I turned down tickets in favour of delivering Tory leaflets for a Tottenham supporting friend of mine in Chatham. I must want my head read. Still, as you may have seen in the previous threads, we delivered a leaflet to Rooster, one of my regular commenters. Spooky coincidence, or what?!

It seems the back four performed wonders and Rob Green saved a penalty, but the men of the match were Etherington and Bellamy. It’s fantastic to see Matty Etherington back in top form. I would have quite happily seen him leave Upton parl in the summer after his terrible form last year. It’s great to see he must have got rid of his demons.

Oh what fun it is to see, West Ham win away. Well, it would have been had I been there…

Well it can’t be worse than last year, can it?! I am optimistic that we will get at least a point at Reading this afternoon. I can;t put my finger on why, but I just don’t think Reading are quite the same team as they were last season. I hope I am not being complacent. I got a phone call yesterday from a friend who had procured two tickets for the match and asked if I wanted to go. Very annoyingly I had already committed to going to help my friend Tracey Crouch, who is the Tory candidate in Chatham and Aylesford, to deliver 20,000 newspapers to her adoring electorate. I decided she’s lynch me if I let her down. So that guarantees that West Ham will deliver a convincing win! I don’t see many changes from last week’s team, apart from Dean Ashton starting and Lee Bowyer coming in to replace Kieron Dyer. Prediction? 0-2 to the Hammers. Brave man,aren’t I?

Well what an anti-climax. We ended up with two players coming in and none departing. Solano is a solid signing but what on earth we are doing signing a player like Henri Camara I just do not know. He’s not exactly Adriano, is he? We now remain short of cover at left back in particular. it is said that we were being quoted £10 million each for Giles Barnes and Nicky Shorey and that is silly money, so I don’t blame the club for not being held to ransom, but even so, I am sure I am not alone by being disappointed in not getting one world class player to sign for us.

Those who accuse us of throwing our money around ought to look at the figures. We have made a net outlay of around £3 million. Just look at what Spurs and Fulham have spent!

The onus now is to to make sure we are in the top half of the table by the time the transfer window opens again in January. If we look as if we are a club on its way up, then we should be able to attract the best players. If we are near the bottom they just won’t come.