Post match reviews vs Crystal Palace and Sheffield Utd

After a busy few days of Football, Hot off the Ironworks brings you reviews for not one but two games! West Ham finally looked to have turned their fortunes around after a brilliant 3-1 win against Crystal Palace before losing to Sheffield Utd on penalties in the Capital One Cup.

                      

FT Score: Crystal Palace 1-3 West Ham
Goals: Palace (Chamakh 48) West Ham (Zarate 34, Downing 37 Cole 62)

What a great way to turn our season around after a disappointing defeat to rivals Spurs, in the first match of the season! A fantastic 3-1 win for the Hammers secured a well deserved three points, that will hopefully be the start of a good run in the league. Before the game many fans, including myself were relieved that skipper, Kevin Nolan was missing from the team. It was then announced that he would be out injured for a few weeks! Great news! I'm not one to wish an injury on a player, especially one who has scored many important goals for us in the past but Nolan has reached the stage in his career where he has very little impact on the game, resulting in us looking as though we are playing with ten men.

This injury meant Big Sam finally played two upfront! This gave new recruit Zarate his chance to shine. We finally looked like a team capable of exciting attacking play with Zarate, Noble and Downing playing some great football. With fellow new recruits Cresswell and Kouyate also putting in great performances, this always looked like a good day for West Ham.

First half

The game started very positively for the Hammers with with some effective passing and movement showing a new found confidence. After 34 mins a short corner found Noble on the edge of the box, his shot smashing into a line of Palace defenders. The ball falls perfectly for Zarate who hammers the ball home with an excellent volley from outside the box (pardon the pun) 1-0! West Hams confidence only grew greater with a string of passes finding Downing on the right wing. A driving run and a superb curling shot into the bottom left hand corner made it 2-0 after 37mins what a start! For once it seemed like we weren't sitting back and defending our lead.

Second half 

Early into the second half, a well executed corner found Tomkins at the back post whose header crashes against the post! Unlucky! The 48th minute saw a Palace comeback with a great shot from former player Chamakh rifling into the goal. 2-1. When it seemed like Palace might comeback into the game we put the game back in our hands after a goal from who else but Carlton Cole!!! His 62 minute goal from close range after a lose ball in the box saw West Ham ease to victory.

FT 1-3

                 

FT score: 1-1 Sheffield Utd win 5-4 on penalties

Goals: West Ham (Sakho) Sheffield Utd (Reid OG)

A disappointing end to a game that definitely saw that Hammers fans got their value for money from their £10 tickets! A youthful hammers side including Burke and Potts saw out the match all the way to penalties, where an Enner Valencia miss saw West Ham crash out in the first stage of the competition 5-4 on penalties.

First Half

West Hams tactics were very clear in this game as it seemed purely an exercise to test controversial star Ravel Morrison. Everything was being played through the troubled midfielder but this seemed to be getting us nowhere with the whole team playing very negatively against a side who hardly troubled us all night. Diame was our biggest threat with some powerful runs causing Sheffield defensive headaches. Finally we took the lead in the 40th minute when Sakho met a good cross to head home his first goal at Upton Park after his arrival from Metz. 1-0

Second half

The second half was no more positive than the first with no movement and very little flair. The introductions of Downing, Zarate and Noble livened the game up but none of these could prevent a Reid own goal after 58 mins which eventually meant extra time. 

Penalties

After a very dull 30 mins with very few chances for either team the match went to the lottery that is a penalty shoot out. We seemed to be coping well with the pressure with Noble scoring his first penalty after his miss vs Tottenham. After four successful penalties it was all down to new signing Valencia who stepped up to take the final shot. Save!! Sheffield Utd score the last penalty putting us out of the competition.

FT 1-1 Sheffield Utd 5-4 on pens

Despite an unfortunate defeat in the cup the league win was fantastic and will hopefully carry on to our game on Saturday at home to Southampton COYI!