From some of the comments on the previous threads you’d think we’d lost 5-0. I wonder if many of those people were actually at the game because I saw far more positives than negatives.

Those who questioned why Cole, Parker and Ilunga didn’t start clearly haven’t been smacked too hard by the clever stick. If players aren’t fit, they don’t start, especially on a cold day when you’re recovering from a hamstring injury.

The best thing about the game was the defensive performance and the clean sheet. Admittedly they had several chances in the latter part of the game, but the defence played as a unit and was untroubled for most of the game. For me, Tomkins was man of the match. Until Roberts harried him off the ball in the last ten minutes he hadn’t put a foot wrong. Spector had his best game in a West Ham shirt, with a first half run into the penalty area which could easily have ended with a shot. Faubert too had a great game, rarely looking troubled and at last having discovered how to deliver a cross.

In midfield Mark Noble was excellent in the first half, although he faded a little latterly. Behrami was as committed as usual, although he played more wayward passes than he normally does. I felt Jack Collison was below par and didn’t really get into the game and wonder whether he might now be rested for a few games. Kovac put in a poor performance and deserved to be subbed.

Up front Nouble struggled to get into the game but looked brighter in the second half. He looks very languid and as if he isn’t trying too hard. Its not true but he really needs to improve his heading and first touch.

And now we come to Diamanti. I’ve said it before and I will say it again. He’s a luxury player. Sure, he’s great at set pieces and has a wicked left foot shot, but he’s a glory hunter and not a team player. For me, apart from Kovac, he was the worst performer today.

Cole, Parker and Sears all came on in the second half. Parker looked great and had a great mazy run to the byline and zipped a cross across the face of the goal. Cole changed everything when he came on and hopefully he can play a full game against Burnley. And as for Sears, he hardly got a kick. Again.

All in all, a perfectly acceptable performance. We could have shaved it but we’re up to 15th. And thank God I don’t have to watch Blackburn every week!

Green 8
Faubert 8
Tomkins 8
Upson 7
Spector 8
Collison 5
Noble 7
Behrami 6
Kovac 5
Diamanti 5
Nouble 5
Cole 6
Parker 7
Sears 5

Click HERE to rate the West Ham players who played against Blackburn.

Welcome back Carlton Cole. Boy how we have missed you. I’m assuming that Frank Nouble will drop to the bench, with Diamanti playing in a forward midfield role, although personally I’d like to see a 4-4-2 formation with Nouble and Cole playing together up front. Just as big a welcome back has to go to Scott Parker who really is without doubt our top player this season. Interestingly, Mark Noble took on his role against Portsmouth and played a blinder according to reports. Let’s hope they both do this afternoon.

I don’t think Herita Ilunga will figure, but he may well be back next week. In the meantime I’d quite like to take another look at Daprela, who was very impressive in his only appearance so far, againt Arsenal. I expect Zola will continue with Spector, though.

After the disappointment of only a point at Portsmouth just think what a kick start a win would give us today. We’d get to 23 points and possibly 13th please. I think I need a lie down.

I haven’t got the stats to hand but I think we normally do quite well against Blackburn at home. We really need that trend to continue today.

My expected lineup…

Green, Faubert, Tomkins, Upson, Spector, Collison, Noble, Parker, Behrami, Diamanti, Cole.

Later on tonight and tomorrow this site is moving to a new server. They’ll be dancing in the streets of Auchtermuchty tonight. But this does mean that there will inevitably be some downtime. It also means that comments left overnight may get lost in the ether. Let’s hope it all goes as smoothly as a 3-0 victory against Blackburn. There, I’ve jinxed us, haven’t I?

Tony Fernandes has revelaed just how near he came to owning West Ham in an interview with BBC Sport. He also says he doesn’t think he will invest in the club as he wanted to be the sole owner. Since talks broke down he has been approached by three other clubs asking if he would be interested in buying them.

More HERE. There’s a four minute interview with him on the page. He comes across as a really genuine guy.

The 1-1 draw with Portsmouth was a disappointing result in the end.  But I actually agreed with those that argued prior to the match that this was one that we could not afford to lose.  So, based on that rationale, mission accomplished!  In truth we had enough goal scoring opportunities on the night to win three matches, but you cannot fault the likes of Collison, Nouble and Diamanti.  They all placed the ball well and/or hit the target, but their goal keeper was in inspired form.  He saved Pompey on at least three or four occasions. 

I really could not believe the downbeat nature of the press reports  on Wednesday morning.  I thought we dominated for long periods and carved out some great chances.  We should have been 0-3 up by the time that Pompey started to come back in to the match in the second half.  Our retention of the ball, passing and movement were all  good.  Once we have a sharper cutting edge up front, to supplement our fluid passing game, I reckon we will not look back.

I was particularly encouraged by the displays of Mark Noble and Frank Nouble.  I agree that it appears that Noble’s best position is as midfield anchor, shielding the defence, winning the ball and distributing it.  Seeing Noble perform so well in this defensive midfield role reminded me of the strong, dynamic young player who made one of the key individual contributions to West Ham staving off relegation in the great escape of 2006-07. 

Noble is not built for speed and does not appear to have the pace to play out wide.  He can play as the offensive point of a midfield diamond, but with the likes of Diamanti around there are now better alternatives.  Playing in the anchor role allows Noble to use his aggression, tackling and ability to distribute the ball to deliver a range of quality forward passes. 

Noble has hopefully found his niche and now Zola needs to show the faith to continue playing him in that role.  It also frees up Scott Parker to play further forward.  Parker defends well, but his aggressive forward play is exceptional.  Noble occupying the anchor role would allow Parker to drive the team forward, make strong surging runs in the final third and pick out decisive passes in and around the box. 

Frank Nouble had his best game in a West Ham shirt against Portsmouth.  His recent inclusion in the first team has been driven by necessity.  I had feared that his opportunity had come too early after the FA Cup tie against Arsenal, where he worked hard without making any real head way.  However, the Villa and Pompey matches saw Nouble’s performance levels improve demonstrably.  Against Pompey he led the line well, was very mobile and showed good technique in receiving and passing the ball.  Nowhere was that technique better demonstrated than his role in the build up for Collison’s excellent strike in the first half.  It was accomplished and intelligent play by the young man and it bodes well for his future at the club.

I am now convinced that Nouble’s early exposure to first team football has been positive, accelerating his development and  improving his confidence at his level.   As for criticism of his finishing, yes he probably should have buried his chance against Pompey, but he did hit the target and that is a good indicator of much better things to come.  Remember, this is a 17/18 year old we are talking about, he has plenty of time to sharpen his finishing a la Carlton Cole. 

As things stand Nouble is a real prospect and is nicely poised to push on next season to increase competition for the striker positions.  Indeed, it has to be said that Nouble’s decision to leave Chelski has been fully vindicated.  Would he have had these early first team opportunities there?  No of course no, he would probably still be stagnating in their reserves.

The loss of two points turned on Tomkins losing a key challenge due to an opposing player’s  wayward elbow and the referee’s baffling failure to award a free kick.  Arguably, 9 times out of 10 modern referees would have awarded an free kick in that situation.  Indeed, they usually seem to stop play and issue yellow cards for most trivial of challenges, yet this time, nothing! Not only did he ignore the offence, but the referee then failed to stop play so that a player with an head injury could receive urgent treatment.  Surely that flies in the face of the FA guidance given to referees? 

How many points this season have we lost due to poor refereeing decisions?  Decisions such as Cole’s disallowed goal against Wigan, Sunderland’s dodgy winner and the penalty that never was against Chelski.  These type of decisions are supposed to even themselves out over the course of a season, if so we can look forward to a glut of dubious refereeing decisions going our way between now and the end of the season!

SJ. Chandos.

Eidur Gudjohnsen has joined Spurs on loan for the rest of the season, according to Sky Sports News. Good. Unreliable sod. I hope he gets splinters in his arse from sitting on the bench, because he sure as hell will struggle to get a game there.

There seems to be a lot of banter about the possibility of us signing Robbie Keane and/or David Bentley from Spurs. Bentley has lost his way at Spurs and I could see Zola reviving his career very well. We are also in desperate need of some wide players. I am less keen on Keane (haha), although on his day, I could see him combining very well with Carlton Cole. But he really does seem to have gone off the boil in recent years. On his day he is a worldbeater and scores some fantastic goals, but his lack of consistent performance has always been an issue. If we could pick him up for £3 million, it would be worth it, but not for much more.

David Sullivan’s dream of taking West Ham into the Olympic stadium may not be as fanciful as some may believe. Until now one of the main obstacles has been the oft repeated claim that it is strongly opposed by the owners of the Westfield shopping complex on the site.

The last thing they need to fill the stores is an invasion of Hammers fans every other Saturday afternoon, or so goes the argument. However, I understand that this is not the view of Westfield and never has been. I gather from reliable sources that John Burton, the man in charge of the Stratford Westfield project is not against West Ham taking over the stadium and thinks it may even be helpful.

Mr Burton, the development director of Westfield Stratford, is understood to believe that West Ham could attract extra shoppers. The boys can go to the soccer while the girls go shopping, then the whole family can all meet up for a meal afterwards. He is said to think that West Ham’s presence could help him persuade the train companies to make more frequent stops at Stratford. The potential problem of shoppers mingling with fans could be overcome with separate accesses to the shops and the stadium.
Moreover, Mr Burton, quite properly, holds the view that Australian owned Westfield will accept whatever decision the authorities make about the post Olympics fate of the stadium.

So where did the notion come from that Westfield want to keep West Ham out? The most popular theory is that it was the result of an aside made by Sir Stuart Lipton, a property developer involved in the Westfield scheme, who reportedly said the shopping company might not take kindly to sharing the site with a football club. Apparently, it was no more than a piece of idle speculation that took on a life of its own.

There are still serious problems with the idea, mainly Seb Coe’s pledge that the stadium must continue to be available for ‘world class’ athletics events after 2012. Football fans do not like the idea of being separated from the players by eight lanes of asphalt which could kill the atmosphere. Some say this fear is hugely exaggerated. And it is possible temporary seating could be erected over the track and removed for athletics events.

More probably, if West Ham were to move into the stadium, they would have to pay up to £50 million to provide a major athletics venue elsewhere, possibly by upgrading Crystal Palace (the national sports centre not the bankrupt football club). A West Ham move to the Olympic stadium also has growing political support. The Labour mayor of Newham Sir Robin Wales is strongly in favour. Boris Johnson is sympathetic. As is, I am led to believe, David Cameron’s Conservative Government in waiting. With the nation squillions of pounds in debt already, the Tories won’t want to dole out even more to prop up an empty, athletics white elephant if West Ham can fill it with paying spectators week in week out.

Lastly, there is Lord Seb Coe. As an Olympic gold medalist, he is heavily committed to ensuring there is an athletics heritage at the stadium. And he is a Chelsea fan. Oh well.