After the recent debacles against Watford, WBA and Southampton, the most recent performance against Middlesboro was a definite improvement. The starting line-up was obviously geared to grinding out a result and we looked much more solid at the back, with Ogbonna slotting in at left-back, Collins and Reid combining well in central defence and Obiang performing admirably in winning the ball and shielding the defence. Yes, we fell behind against the run of play, but our biggest player (Payet) then magnificently stepped up to the plate and dragged us back in to the game with a moment of pure brilliance.
It was a hard fought point, won with a lot of hard work, sweat and a moment of inspired genius. Moreover, it was an improvement and a point that could be highly significant in terms of West Ham’s gradual return to form. In the type of situation that we currently find ourselves in, it is about improving ‘inch by inch,’ game by game and one is reminded of Al Pacino’s motivational speech in the film, ‘Any Given Sunday’ (on the US game of Grid Iron), in which he states that:
‘I do not know what to say really.
Three minutes to the biggest battle of our professional lives, it all comes down to today.
Either we heal as a team or we are going to crumble.
Inch by inch, play by play, till we’re finished.
We are in hell right now gentlemen, believe me.
We can stay here and get the shit kicked out of us or we can fight our way back into the light.
We can climb out of hell.
One inch at a time.’
‘Now I cannot do it for you.
I am too old.
I look around and I see these young faces and I think, I mean, I made every choice a middle age man could make.
I uh ….
I pissed away all my money, believe it or not.
I chased off anyone who ever loved me.
And lately, I can not even stand the face I see the mirror.’
‘You know when you get old in life things get taken from you.
That’s part of life.
But, you only learn that when you start losing stuff.
You only find out that life is just a game of inches.
So is football, because in either game, life or football, the margin for error is so small.
I mean, one half step too late or too early and you do not make it.
One half second too slow or too fast and you do not quite catch it.
The inches we need are everywhere around us, they are in every break of the game, every minute, every second.’
‘On this team, we fight for that inch.
On this team, we tear ourselves, and everyone around us, to pieces for that inch.
We claw with our finger nails for that inch.
Cause we know when we add up all those inches that is going to make the difference between winning and losing, between living and dying.’
‘I tell you this, in any fight it is the guy who is willing to die, who is going to get that inch.
And I know if I am going to have a life anymore it is because, I am willing to fight and die for that inch, because that is what living is.
The six inches in front of your face.’
‘Now I cannot make you do it.
You have got to look at the guy next to you.
Look in to his eyes.
Now I think you are going to see a guy who will go that inch with you.
You are going to see a guy who will sacrifice himself for this team because he knows when it comes down to it, you are going to do the same thing for him.’
’That’s a team gentlemen and either we heal now, as a team, or we will die as individuals.
That’s football guys.
That’s all it is.
Now what are you going to do?’
Slaven Bilic could do a lot worse than to play the u-tube clip of that motivational speech to the players and staff ahead of the Palace game! Because it encompasses everything that we need to do, as a team unit, to improve and get our season back on track, ‘inch by inch.’
SJ. Chandos.