West Ham Match Thread - Sponsored by CarLOLos Tevez

[Royal Rother]

35% possession? Who cares?

Although I want to see us play entertaining stuff, at the moment I don't give a fig. We'll play our football on other occasions.

The defence are awesome at the moment, and whilst we are still finding our feet at this level, that is enough to build survival on. Moving forward we need to get some belief that our passing game will still work in The Premiership but whilst we've got Lita, who right now seems incapable of keeping the ball for more than a split second, I think we're going to struggle to link many constructive moves up.

Backs to the wall is becoming a habit, which is a problem, but then so is winning, which is not!

[Arch]

I think there's a fairly simple reason we didn't look good today. We tried to keep it out of the mud by hitting it long, and 95% of our passes were overhit.

[PremAddict]

Defense can win games even with mediocre attack. All you need is one goal. In this case, even with a solid dominance on possession with arguably some great attacking depth, WH were still unable to put up a result. The same held true with MU only with the unbelievable talent of C.R. to salvage a point.

Away and in poor conditions, 3 points is great.

[JimmytheJim]

Why does everyone expect us to be matching or outplaying established premier teams? We're frequently going to lose out in terms of posession etc. I'll settle for a decent result every game this season.

Very well-said sir.

[dantheloyalroyal]

Why does everyone expect us to be matching or outplaying established premier teams? We're frequently going to lose out in terms of posession etc. I'll settle for a decent result every game this season.

Very well-said sir.

Agreed. 3 points against West Ham is pretty tough, well, not so much at the moment, but still!

[Sonic]

Great result Whenever an away team scores early the home team are bound to pile on the pressure and attack and thus the 65:35 possession count. I think the possession would have been more even if the score had been 0-0 heading into the final quarter of the game. Nothing wrong with defending a 1-0 lead away from home.

[higher]

Horses for courses.Sir Steve had his lads doing exactly the right thing out there.
After an early goal we frustrated West Ham. No it wasnt pretty but wonderfully effective.
3 points in the bag the pretty stuff can wait for the right moments in the right games. We can do both.

[PieEater]

We got ahead and parked the bus in front of the goal..... in preparation for Saturday week.

[Chaney]

No improvement needed when it comes to result - I'd take a hard fought 1:0 against Chelsea any time.

Stating the obvious.

If we play like that against Chelsea we will come away with a hard-fought 6-0 thumping.

Excellent result today, but undeserved, and lots to work on at the training ground, namely putting together cohesive attacks away from home.

with our defence nobody but nobody will put 6 past us this season, can i ask your opinions on the united game?..because IMO this was almost a carbon copy, are you sure you aint a closet hammers fan?

[Platypuss]

Great result Whenever an away team scores early the home team are bound to pile on the pressure and attack and thus the 65:35 possession count. I think the possession would have been more even if the score had been 0-0 heading into the final quarter of the game. Nothing wrong with defending a 1-0 lead away from home.

The concern is that there was no need for it to be 65%-35% - West Ham weren't that good at all.

We just did our utmost to give them the ball at every opportunity.

[Royal Yank]

The concern is that there was no need for it to be 65%-35% - West Ham weren't that good at all.

Defending a 1-0 lead away from home is a legitimate although not spectacular approach. I think the confidence to defend from the front will improve with time. In the meantime, it is a great to see Sonks, Ivar and co. shine. It is almost as if we surprise ourselves by getting our noses ahead.

[cmonurz]

No improvement needed when it comes to result - I'd take a hard fought 1:0 against Chelsea any time.

Stating the obvious.

If we play like that against Chelsea we will come away with a hard-fought 6-0 thumping.

Excellent result today, but undeserved, and lots to work on at the training ground, namely putting together cohesive attacks away from home.

with our defence nobody but nobody will put 6 past us this season, can i ask your opinions on the united game?..because IMO this was almost a carbon copy, are you sure you aint a closet hammers fan?

Whatever you say!

I agree, this was almost a carbon copy of United - the difference being that this was West Ham United, no wins since Charlton on the opening day, a dressing room falling to bits, and only an average midfield and defence (like ours, in the whole scheme of things).

My opinion on the United game is that whilst it was a fantastic result, on another day it might have been 4 or 5-1, and that's only considering the chances United missed, on what was a poor day for them.

As I have said a number of times, an excellent result, and last week against United, but vast footballing improvement needed if we are to be safe before the closing couple of games of the season, imho.

[Chaney]

By the way, Konchesky! What a fokker. Should have been sent off twice over.

if you kick a man delibrately off the ball its a straight red..why should it be different just because Long had the ball?

[xtreme rebel]

Great result lads, delighted to see ye maintain such a good start!

Watched all of the game online, I must say that Seol's goal was deserving to win any game. Up until the off the line chance in injury-time, Reading defended very well and West Ham, for all their possession, never looked like scoring!

Shane Long put himself about when he came on!

[Chaney]

nobody said it would be easy, first seaon here is all about survival, so give me 10 more bad performances and 3 points

[cmonurz]

nobody said it would be easy, first seaon here is all about survival, so give me 10 more bad performances and 3 points

Agree, but we won't get many more cheap 3 points like that this season, believe me.

What pleases me most about our start is it should increase our buying power in the January transfer window.

[Volvicanus]

I didn't think they were going to hold out for the whole game but fair play to them - they did it. So this is what Sir Steve has in mind for games against biggies at home and certain away matches. Fair enough I guess. It's worked twice now and got us four points out of six. It won't be pretty to watch (although watching Sonko these days is quite a treat in itself) but survival is the key and you would have to say that Coppell is making the correct choices so far.

Lord almightly though - someone ought to wrap Sonko up in cotton wool.

[blue_army1871]

From what I head on BBC Radio 5live Sidwell was the MOTM. He made a vital clearence off the line in stoppage time and from what I heared he won every tackle in the midfield. It looks as if he is 100% committed to Reading although i don't know why he won't sign on.

[savage 4 england]

Not too sure about Sidwell being MOTM.

[royal_who]

great result.so happy!~!!!!