COLUMNIST KEN BUCKLEY
From my seat: West Ham (H)
Comments (14) : The Blues started quickly with intent but the first chance fell to the visitors with only five minutes gone when the Hammers debutant centre-back hit the bar from a corner. Another couple of minutes and the Yak got onto a flicked header from Big Vic and out-muscled the young debutant and finished impressively. It was some start as within another couple of minutes Cahill was walking off in some bad mood as he clearly was unable to continue; it crossed my mind that he was more dissappointed at the thought of missing the Aussie game than the Derby... I hope that was not the case. Manny came on ? wasn't he supposed to have no chance due to injury?
On 15 minutes the Yak had the ball in the net again with a sublime finish only to be ruled offside yet from my seat that seemed most harsh. I must look for that on MotD. From this point, we became uncertain and this was typified by uncertainty between Arteta and Jags that gave Ashton a clear chance that he should have punished us with.
Just before half-time the Yak played in Big Vic one-on-one and although it could be said the keeper did well to smother him out, the truth is any half decent striker would have struck. Then just before the whistle Ashton took a free-kick that was deflected which brought a wonderful save from Howard with his foot after being wrong-footed.
H/T and the talk was more of holding what we had rather than getting more... The second half and the Blues still looked the more likely and a cross from Baines was well turned toward goal by the Yak but Green made a good save.
As the half wore on we became more and more edgy and uncharacteristic mistakes were being made which transmitted to the faithful who in turn became edgy. Curbishly sent on the teenage prodigy Sears for our hate figure Boa Morte and he was soon unsettling our reaguard.
The way the Hammers were moving the ball it came as little surprise to me when Neill put in a cross that was met by Ashton and despite Howard getting a hand to it found the corner of the net. I thought then that the Hammers had the best of things, Ljungberg put in Sears but Howard held his shot. Again Sears embarrassed Jags and was round him but Howard made up the ground and grabbed the ball.
Noble drove just over the bar and right on the death Sears gave Jags the goodbye but his shot hit a post and the red faced Jags hacked clear.
Final whistle and I thought it was shame on those who booed as the boys on the field had given their all even if they looked far from a CL candidate. Overall, I thought this game showed just how far we have come to be sitting fifth with daylight between us and sixth place and also how far we have to go to make it a top five.
But I have to ask the question "Is a good captain and organiser worth his place when he his not a particularly good player?" I have said it before I believe we need a better right back but until we get one give me Hibbo anytime and I will take the stick for saying it.
At the end of the game a matchday mate gave me a card that read 'The place for fun and games'. bluewinner.com. It just seemed to be the wrong day to be giving it to me. Other results went for us today and the Villa result just shows the pressure on those chasing the 'Sky Four' and also leads me to have confidence in us grinding out a fIfth place finish with our own grit and determination and also some odd results from others.
I have no problem with Sky promoting the top four with rigged fixtures and Grand Slam Sundays, what I want is for our club to be able to invest and allow the manager to build a squad of sufficient numbers of skilled players so that Grand slam Sunday will be impossible to rig fixture wise as they wont know which of the top five positions the Mighty Blues will be in.
We are getting there but the final push is within the hands of the Board,may they come up trumps. I believe our great season has caught up with us but in the end our adversity will produce both a thrilling and nailbiting finale. Bring it on!
UP THE BLUES
Reader Comments
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I know the team as a unit has played really really well but I think there is now too much onus on Yakubu to score goals and even if Lescott or Johnson don't pop up with one or two then nobody else is taking on the mantle and that could be a big problem between now and the end of the season.
Sadly Halsey also saw fit to miss just about every more than obvious infringement by Ashton including climbing all over our defenders, pushing and shoving. Some of the benefit which defenders should have enjoyed in 50-50 tackles seemed to elude him as well.
At the end we were lucky to get a point - you could easily argue we should have been 2 up after 15 but I’ll settle for more points than Villa and Pompey garnered on the day.
I think fourth will be a real stretch given the fixtures. The fifth spot I think will be between Portsmouth and ourselves. Looking at the fixtures they could easily accumulate 67 points that means that we will need to take points from Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea. e.g. three draws or a win from any would do the trick.
As for the transfer window, I hope we go for quality not quantity and continue with the policy of incremental growth. Two high class signing would be a minimum, a defensive midfielders and an attacking midfielder?old inside forward?, Anshavin comes to mind from Zenit St Petersburg. If the opportunity arose to buy David Bentley (which we could have done 3 years ago when he was wallowing away, on loan at Norwich) I think the club should give him the most serious consideration. Of course holding onto what we have will be a challenge and I?m not convinced that the recent long term deal with Lescott will be enough for some clubs to keep their grubby hands away ? Man United come to mind.
Finally on a completely different point, I?m delighted to hear the Moyes won his case against Harper-Collins with reference to the Rooney autobiography. The truth is sometimes considerably more straightforward than all the grassy knoll conspiracy theories.
We need more quality from the wide areas, our crossing and set-pieces recentley have been awful. Arteta seems to be off the boil with his deliveries with maybe only one good one a game. The full-backs the same. Where did West Hams goal come from a deep cross from the right-hand side, a pin point cross and the result a goal. Ours seem to be either too deep, go out of play or hit the first man.
Also, I can’t believe this talk of the disallowed goal changing the game. West Ham hit the crossbar before the Yak scored, if they went 1-0 up that would have changed the game too. If they didn’t hit the post in the final minutes they would have won.
We can’t blame the referee for the poor preformence of late and the lack of service to the Yak.
We need quality additions in ALL areas, what would happen if Yak got injured? Cahill has been hampered with injuries every season, AJ has (he isn?t top notch anyway).
Just accept, we have gone as far as we can with the Kenwright way. Only new owners would change, and that ain?t gonna happen.
You can think on about who you would like, but what you are going to get is Neville, Carsley, Osman, Hibbert, Johnson running around with no composure and a squad without Lescott & Yak in 2 years time. Oh and yes, still in Goodison Park with Kenwright still fucking here.
Personally I hope Yobo comes back for this next game, with Lescott moving out wide again, he?s such a threat moving down the left hand side. Id like to see Baines in left midfield even though its not his natural position. This would allow Osman to play in the middle where he has been best this season.
Finally Fernandes was good so Id like to see him in the team, but I?m concerned he?ll make some costly errors as he has been doing every time he?s been on the pitch. He did have his best game on the weekend though.
He isn't fit and has not been in the team often enough to get used to other players runs and yet he is the best passer of "the killer" ball we have.
He does get caught in possession too often but how many times does Neville pass straight to the opposition or hoof it upfield?
If we want to play football we need to build a team around fernandes not find another hoofball MF player.
In addition to him and Pienaar (I hope his "injury" is nothing to do with Arsenal etc sniffing around) we need a good winger/MF and ball winner to replace Lee Carsley next year. RB goes without saying yet I struggle to find any decent RB?s in the Prem except perhaps Lucas Neill?
We could try raiding Chelsea?s huge locker but I doubt whether their players would take a drop in wages (Joe Cole, SWP, Makalele, Mikel, Essien?) ... If only!
Shame that one point out of six, instead of the six it should have been, means that we haven?t been able to cement fifth, but I am worried about the Derby. We look so flat...
thats 9 points in the bag. Bury the rams with a six pack stuff the brummies, turn the newkies brown. fourth is in the BAG
Carsley and Neville in midfield together should not happen again and in my opinion on Saturday we didn't play that badly when Fernandes came on for Cahill. Fair enough he strolls about the pitch but in the opening ten minutes of the second half we started well and I am thinking we are going to get a second before they get goal to make it 1-1.
The biggest problem we had on Saturday in my opinion was the loss of Yobo in the heart of defense. Ok it gave Baines a chance to shine but over the last three months Lescott has made the left-back position his own and Yobo and Jagielka had struck up a central defensive partnership. Jagielka in particular looked to be very uncertain and I am not very convinced by a Jags & Lescott defensive partnership on Sunday in the derby. I would rather have Lescott at left back where he is that bit stronger than Baines and if we can find a place for Baines in the left of midfield (subject to injuries) then all well and good..
I don?t think you need to be a rocket scientist to realise we will struggle with Cars and Neville in midfield, Cars does what he does best in a creative line up, Neville is not and has never been as good as Cars when undertaking that role, never mind doubled up. Mis that up with Manny, who in the absence of OPTIMA stats must have one of the worst pass completion rates in the league if you exclude the 10 ft side ways passes to Jags and Roger when he appeared to be playing deeper than Cars on Sat! I have no doubt Moyes will not be signng Manny on a perm deal and would see his priorities in a goal scoring midfileder and probably a replacement Cars.
Given the results around us I am dissapointed with our score on Sat despite the standard of performanace, role on the shite, it?s all to play for!
COYB
I couldnt have put it better myself Ken!
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1 Posted 23/03/2008 at 22:09:17
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Perhaps I’m just going deaf in my old age.