I can’t claim last night was the best game I have ever seen under the Boleyn flood lights but those last 11 minutes made up for it.
In many ways Norwich were unlucky and lady luck was on our side for once but our defence were an absolute rock again earning them a 13th clean this season, two more than second place Arsenal. Last night’s clean sheet made it four in a row, a feat not achieved since 1985 under the late, great John Lyall when the boys recorded the club record of 5 clean sheets. It is difficult to see how Winston Reid will earn his place back at the moment to break up the Collins/Tomkins partnership. Last night also made it three wins in a row, another feat not achieved since 2007 under Alan Curbishley when we won 4 games on the trot at the end of the season. We had not won a league game under the flood lights at the Boleyn ground for four years before last night. I am told our last mid week evening league win was a 2-0 win v Birmingham on 10th Feb 2010
At the 83rd minute in the game last night I tweeted out “It is all well and good getting clean sheets but we need to score a goal!” As my blackberry flashed up a message saying tweet posted! James Collins rose in the air to head home a goal in the 86th minute to put us ahead. Late in injury time Momo Diame who changed the game when he came on by setting up Ginger Pele’s goal took on two defenders and wrong footed the goalkeeper thanks to a deflection to score a solo goal. We went mad in Sir Trevor Brooking Lower when the goal went in as you can see from the video below which I recorded on my iphone.
Maybe the biggest hero of the night was Adrian, he made some important saves to keep us in the game right up to Ginge’s goal and he has a growing rapport with the West Ham fans. He is clearly passionate about West Ham and we sung his name for much of the evening. Maybe he is an early contender for Hammer of the year along side Mark Noble and possibly the making of a future West ham legend. At the end of the video below after the final whistle you can see him coming over to the Sir Trevor Brooking Lower crowd and giving his gloves to a disabled supporter.
The first team squad fly off to Dubai today for their warm weather training and we can’t say they don’t deserve it. I am prepared to eat humble pie and admit the chairman were right to keep Sam Allardyce when many of us were calling for him to be sacked a few weeks ago. The four bottom clubs all changed their manager while we are now 10th in the premier league after last night’s win. I know there is a long way to go but I feel confident we can now survive. As Bonzo said yesterday we turned a corner at Stamford bridge with the goalless draw,
