Blind Hammer supports Brooking’s call for the Board Haters to stay away.
This is what Trevor Brooking said after the disgraceful scenes on Saturday.
“….some of those decided if we went behind that was the time then to show their frustration. But the actual level of aggression was something I couldn’t believe a West Ham fan could get involved in.
“Some of the aggression was so strong – it did go back to the bad old days. I saw a few young families leaving because the youngsters were frightened. That’s not your genuine West Ham fan, and some of the aggression was really strong.”
“The stewards were quite young and really couldn’t deal with the aggression that they were faced with.”
“The fans, and the fans involved in that have to understand that and really shelve all those discussions and all those frustrations – just don’t come to the games at the moment until you try and allow the players to get the points to try and stay up and that is the biggest challenge in the next three weeks.
“There have been a lot of frustrations about spending money and a players coming in and all those sort of things as whether the stadium is the right place. The fact is we’re at the stadium and it’s nearly the end of the second season and yes there’s a debate on investment but now with five home matches remaining. It looked an advantage. But when you’ve just lost 3-0 and had people coming onto the pitch with a lot of people venting their frustrations towards the directors… that means the next five games at home look pretty bleak. There is no way that the team is going to be able to play and get the points to stay up under that sort of atmosphere – it’s impossible
“All I will say is that between now and the end of the season, anyone who has got that aggressive frustration to just don’t come to the five home games that are left because we need everyone, all the fans and the team all working together, to try and get sufficient results in the five home games – which we thought were going to be the strength – but yesterday became a massive weakness.”
I am amazed that, even now, some are trying to excuse the thugs and idiots who ruined the game. Brooking is entirely correct, there are no excuses. The response of so called supporters was astonishingly self-destructive. The truth is that West Ham were not playing a stinker. We should remember that for over half the game we were the better side. You do not have to take my word for it. Sean Syche admitted that his side were simply not in it until they scored. They were restricted to early time wasting. This was orchestrated by their goalkeeper Pope. His long punts were also their main tactic deployed to resist West Ham’s dominance. Lennon’s handball should have been punished with a penalty. West Ham’s performance was not perfect, we lacked a cutting edge, Mario and Lanzini in particular missed crucial chances, and Hernandez should probably have been introduced earlier.
Nevertheless it was Dyche who made an inspired substitution and it was Wood who scored a fine goal in a rare Burnley attack. This happens in football. Teams go behind but can recover. Time for our supporters to show their loyalty, their mettle and support? Not a bit of it.
The proclamation by the Board Haters that they could separate their vitriol in a way that would not negatively affect the team was always a fantasy. This animosity destroyed our season at the time of the Bond Scheme. It is destroying us now. The fact that we are now amongst favourites for relegation has everything to do with these self-consumed malcontents rather than anything to do with our squad or management. I get it that people are emotionally upset that Upton Park no longer exists. I absolutely deny that they, because they cannot come to terms with this, have the right to drag us into an angry abyss. If there is a cancer eating away and destroying our club it is these negative and arrogant self-obsessed. This hate filled minority were always going to allow their own sense of grievance to come first. We saw on Saturday how deep their support really is.
The self-consumed were simply waiting for the first hint of any adversity to abandon any pretence of support. They welcomed it as the earliest opportunity to launch the disgraceful scenes which shattered any chance that the team could recover. Lenin once famously described this kind of support as the support provided by the hangman’s noose.
My in stadium commentator could not even describe the game for the last 15 minutes. He had a duty to explain the situation from the health and safety perspective of blind and visually impaired supporters. He felt obliged to increase our awareness of the developing Stadium disorder. From his position he described women and frightened children around him crying in fear. There were many supporters of all genders and ages getting very panicky. He also described the reaction of Brooking, positioned adjacent to him, when these so called supporters, to my mind, idiots, launched their attack. He described Brooking profound embarrassment when these morons started chanting his name. Brooking was visibly appalled that they could ever feel he had anything in common with them.
It is difficult to express the depths of anger I personally feel about the people who are dragging our club down with their self-serving negativity. However I don’t have to. Brooking has summed up the situation perfectly.
David Griffith