Barclays Premier League
Upton Park - Saturday 20th October 2012
West Ham 4
- Noble 46′,72′(pen)
- Nolan 48′
- Maiga 87′
Southampton 1
- Lallana 63′
Att: 34,925
Match Report
I went through several emotions with this game.
First of all was the disbelief on looking at the teamsheet. Borac in, Lambert out, and the defence shaken all about. Fox missing again and three CB's on the pitch, albeit Yoshida at left back. Well, he is left footed, as his last outing at right back proved.
I don't intend to spend much time dissecting this game in much detail, as the result was like a kik in the teeth. Suffice to say that in spite of a cobbled up team, Saints more than held their own for the first half. In fact the feared (by Saints fans!) Andy Carroll did very little, other than fall over all the time.
Then came half time and West Ham decided to put Saints under pressure this paid pretty immediate dividends, with goals scored by Noble and Nolan within less than five minutes of the restart.
Even then Saints were still in the match and when Lallana scored a good goal in the 63rd minute, after some nice approach work from Rodriguez, you had the feeling that West Ham were there for the taking. That feeling continued until the 72nd minute when Nolan converted a penalty awarded for the silliest handball by Fonte I have seen for a long time. Even though the aforementioned Carroll was putting him under pressure. By now Carroll was making a nuisance of himself with Hooiveld, who was looking increasingly rattled. Hooiveld cuts a very sorry figure at the moment. The fine, confident Centre Back of last season is but a distant memory. Added to this Yoshida was having a mare of a game at left back. So, that is clear then. In future Nigel must not put the cultured Japanese CB at either left, or right back.
The fourth West Ham goal came when the match was already won. Maiga simply waltzed through the non existant Saints defence and shot past the hapless Borac.
Which reminds me, I know Borac left Italian side Fiorentina at the end of last season and was without a club until Saints signed him a short time ago, but he still looks seriously out of shape. In fact I saw one of the national newspapers describe him as the Roly-Poly man. Why then was Gazzaniga replaced by a player who is clearly not fit, especially when he had done absolutely nothing wrong. Far from it, he has looked increasingly impressive. Yes, he does have some rough edges, but with Kelvin Davis to mentor him they should get smoothed out.
I have left the most contentious thing until last. Rickie Lambert. He has dragged Saints kicking and screaming to the Premier League from the depths of Division One. Not only that, but in the first few games he seemed completely at home in the Premier League and carried on scoring. So why, why, why, why, was he left out again? I have had fans of other teams asking me what Adkins is thinking of and to be frank I have no idea what to say to them. If Lambert is fit, then he should play. Simple.
In the post game interviews Nigel Adkins looked about as down and sounded as depressed and demoralised as I have ever seen him. I sincerely hope that he snaps out of that mood pronto, as I really like the bloke and he has achieved great things in getting Saints to where they are today. He has worked his butt off and even now, we are only eight matches into the season and Saints are not even bottom of the League. Nigel said during the Summer months that they needed to sign more defensive players (over and above Clyne and Yoshida), but for various reasons Les Reed and Cortese were unable to complete any more deals. So Nigel has to work with the players that he has.
Nigel is right about one thing though. Saints cannot go on conceding so many goals each game.
Channonite 24.10.2012
Teams
West Ham
- 22 Jaaskelainen
- 02 Reid
- 03 McCartney
- 04 Nolan
- 05 Tomkins (Spence - 88' )
- 19 Collins
- 07 Jarvis
- 15 Benayoun
- 16 Noble
- 21 Diame (O'Neil - 68' )
- 08 Carroll (Maiga - 82' )
Substitutes
- 30 Spiegel
- 27 Spence
- 44 Chambers
- 32 O'Neil
- 09 Cole
- 11 Maiga
- 46 Hall
Southampton
- 31 Boruc
- 02 Clyne
- 03 Yoshida
- 05 Hooiveld Booked
- 06 Fonte
- 04 Schneiderlin Booked
- 08 S Davis (Ward-Prowse - 89' )
- 20 Lallana
- 21 Guly
- 42 Puncheon (Mayuka - 65' )
- 09 Rodriguez (Lambert - 65' )
Substitutes
- 01 K Davis
- 25 Seaborne
- 29 Reeves
- 16 Ward-Prowse
- 27 Chaplow
- 07 Lambert
- 24 Mayuka
Match Stats
Possession
- West Ham 47%
- Southampton 53%
Shots
- West Ham 9
- Southampton 11
On target
- West Ham 8
- Southampton 4
Corners
- West Ham 6
- Southampton 3
Fouls
- West Ham 10
- Southampton 12
