The only result that would have been acceptable from the home faithful for this one would have been four or five-nil. Derby have been thrashed by all and sundry, West Ham slotting five past them in the away fixture earlier in the season. Listening to our team being announced before the game I was not confident of a big victory, no Ashton or Upson, but saying that no Mullins or Spector, so every cloud…. Rumours were abound of a stomach bug hitting some players, but it would not surprise me if Ashton and Upson are injured, again.
As in the last few games, we started brightly, plus Derby looked incredibly poor. It took twenty-five minutes for the goal to arrive, with George McCartney floating over a free kick for Zamora to nod home. I have no idea why Leacock did not make a challenge on Zamora, but a goal is a goal.
After the first goal had gone in I thought the floodgates would open, but alas this was not the case. Instead we sat back and let Derby come into the game. There was good link up play between Jones and Sterjovski, resulting in a deflected shot. From the resultant corner Miller shot just over the bar. Not long after, everyone’s favourite blonde Robbie Savage forced Green to make a decent save from a flying heeader. Half time arrived with just the single goal on the board. The natives were getting recently, and I could honestly see Derby scoring in the second half.
Derby came out of the blocks quickest after the break with Jones again at the heart of their best moves, flashing a cross into the six yard box which Miller should really have connected with. The Derby goal came after 65 minutes with Hossam Ghaly playing ex-Hammer Tyrone Mears through on goal, he ably shot past Green from 18 yards to send the Derby fans wild.
The game opened up a bit after Mears’ goal, but still it was Derby who looked more likely to score. The home fans were seriously losing patience, many of them making for the concourse bars to moan and bitch about the team, and Curbishley. You could feel the animosity towards Curbishley growing as the game progressed, and this came to a head when the manager substitued Sears and brought on Carlton Cole to cries of ‘you don’t know what you’re doing’. To be fair, he did, as it was Cole who converted Ljungberg’s cross,slotting home from close range in the 77th minute. The goal was greeted with no more than polite applause from most, the crowd being less than impressed with what they were seeing.
Derby pressed for a second equaliser, and Savage really should have scored with an injury time header. To be fair to Derby a draw would have been a fair scoreline for the effort they put in in the final two-thirds of the game. A quick word of praise for the travelling fans, it can’t be too much fun being humiliated week in, week out, but they turned up in numbers and really got behind their team. As for us, where do we go from here? Well, we must improve in the last few games of the season. Newcastle with their new found confidence and in-form three-pronged attack of Owen/Viduka/Martins will destroy us next week if we are not careful. Beyond that the medical/injury situation at the club must be sorted out. Many of the injuries are down to plain old bad luck, but there is something wrong with how injuries are handled at the club. The Bellamy situation is one blatant examplpe. Also how many times have we been told a player will return in a week or two, only for them to disappear for months (Etherington and Bowyer for example).
Let’s hope that a few more key players return for the Barcodes game, and that the whole team bring their A game, if not we could be in for a tonking.
West Ham: Green, Pantsil, Tomkins, Neill, McCartney, Faubert (Solano 78), Noble, Parker, Ljungberg (Boa Morte 90), Sears (Cole 74), Zamora.
Subs Not Used: Walker, Mullins.
Booked: Noble, Parker.
Goals: Zamora 20, Cole 77.
Derby: Carroll, Todd (McEveley 83), Leacock, Stubbs, Lewis, Mears, Ghaly, Savage, Jones (Villa 75), Sterjovski, Miller.
Subs Not Used: Price, Feilhaber, Moore.
Goals: Mears 65.
Ref: Steve Tanner (Somerset).
Alan Curbishley
‘After losing our last three games it was important that we bounced back. There is a great lack of appreciation of what we have done this season.
‘We have managed to keep away from the danger area. On Friday morning we were scratching our heads to see how we would put a team together.
‘The players have done really well and looking back this has been a successful season.’
Paul Jewell
‘The fans have been unbelieveable and that’s why we were desperate to reward them today.
‘They have been there all season and they deserve to be in the Premier League.
‘We hope to take them back there next season.’