Vinny's Crystal Palace Report
Vinny 10:58 Sun Feb 26

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West Ham United 0 Crystal Palace 0

In the early kick off West Ham failed to beat Crystal Palace and drop to second in the league with Southampton regaining top spot in the Championship.

After destroying Blackpool earlier in the week 4-1 despite going down to ten men and playing midfielder Henri Lansbury in goal for much of the second half there was great expectation and confidence going into this game so to put in such a mediocre display was extremely frustrating.

Instead of a confident display providing tenacity fearlessness and heart what we saw was a very tired performance lacking ideas and we never seemed to be able to find momentum against an impressive Crystal Palace side that played some very nice stuff especially in a first half which they dominated.

Nothing about this performance was similar to the last three we have put in which showed a resilience we have all been delighted with especially in the adversity of having a man sent off in each of those games.

Despite the disappointing result the positive we can take is that we were not beaten and in the second half Palace barely managed a decent effort on goal. Our issue was that we had so little creativity and width that our attacking play was so slow and led to very little.

Although I like most was unhappy with the way we played I cannot justify the booing of the team at half time and full time. Who the hell do we think we are? This is West Ham and not Barcelona, we will not win every game and I cannot work out why sections of our support think we will.

Listening to some of our ‘support’ during the game you would think that we were bottom of the league never mind at the top. The reactions to certain players still baffle me in terms of how some cannot be criticised but others will be no matter what they do.

Every fan of course has a right to an opinion and they pay their money blah blah but I still cannot understand the mentality of turning up to watch West Ham and deciding to slag everything about the club off for ninety minutes.

Certainly I have expressed my dissatisfaction over our style of football and the direction the club is taking on the pitch but I would save those grumblings for after the game in either conversation or on forums such as these.

Underneath it all it is perhaps supporters becoming disillusioned with the state of football in this country and the lack of connection to any of the players they are paying to watch. We as a club are fortunate to have players in our side which at least have some affection towards the club such as Mark Noble, Jack Collison and James Tomkins.

Not that I want to sit here and start dictating the way supporters decide to support the team but I cannot understand why we would boo the team off either at half time or full time. If we had lost three or four nil I could perhaps understand but I am at a bit of a loss to the mentality of some.

The Team

Having beaten Blackpool so convincingly there was unsurprisingly no changes made the starting line-up.

This saw Nicky Maynard up front on his own with Vaz Te on the left wing and Faubert on the right with the midfield trio of Collison, Tomkins and Noble (who was the captain in the absence of Kevin Nolan).

Despite the concern caused by Allardyce refusing to name a substitute goal keeper on the bench last Tuesday, once again he opted to not to have one.

First Half

It was the visitors from South London who could and possibly should have taken the lead within the first minute when Zaha found himself clear down the right and he squared for Darren Ambrose who curled his shot wide in what was a good chance.

Even early on in the first half Winston Reid seemed to be struggling to deal with Palace forward Jermaine Easter and during the first period Reid won next to nothing in the air. I am not sure if it was the sun in his eyes or he was just having a tough afternoon but he did not look comfortable.

Easter got in behind Reid and looked to have a clear run on goal but Faye got back to make an excellent block.

On the six minute mark many of the West Ham fans attempted to chant the name of Bobby Moore whose anniversary it was the day before. Whilst it did not really take off the way many had hoped it was still a nice gesture in remembrance of West Ham and England’s finest.

The first twenty minutes was a very disjointed affair which the game being stopped for injuries and free kicks which prevented either team from settling early and finding any fluidity to their game.

Tomkins went down with a facial injury which saw him receive treatment for some time which Carlton Cole taking off his tracksuit and poised to come on. But Tomkins recovered and was able to come back onto the pitch when it had looked as though his afternoon was finished.

On the 18 minute mark we won a corner on which was taken by Jack Collison. It was an awful corner and he would have another couple of attempts during this half which would be just as bad if not worse.

A turn and shot by Martin saw Robert Green parry the ball and claim just before Easter could nip in. It wasn’t a great stop from Green who would have been disappointed that he misjudged the movement of the ball.

Palace were picking up confidence and looked the team most likely to open the scoring as Martin again saw his effort beaten out by Robert Green. The ball then came out to Zaha who had reacted quicker and his effort came off Tomkins with Robert Green having to make a reaction save to tip over the bar.

The corner that came in was met by Jedinak but his attempt went over the bar when he should have done slightly better.

The Place fans were in full voice and the only ones making noise inside the Boleyn Ground. The had come in numbers and must have been delighted by the way their side were approaching the game.

Green was called into action again when weak challenges from Noble and O’Brien saw the ball break to Jedinak who hit his shot at goal which was pushed away by Robert Green who was the difference at this point.

Five minutes of injury time were awarded due the amount of stoppages and I was just hoping we would be able to get in at half time still on level terms.

And we did manage to go in at half time at 0-0 but the half time whistle was met by a number of boos from the West Ham support.

It was quite embarrassing really that being 0-0 at half time would be greeted by boos from your own support.

Whilst we had not reached anywhere near our Top Gear those who booed should be taken outside and shot in front of their families.

I jest.

Perhaps.

Second Half

A change was needed and it was made with Carlton Cole coming on for Julien Faubert who had not been in the game.

It was humorous that the people around me who usually slag Cole all game long were actually suggesting during the first half that we needed him on the pitch.

Whether it was Cole or just the way the team approached the second half we instantly looked a better team and the performance in the second half whilst not our best was a million times better and we created a few chances which should have seen us take a least one of them.

Cole one his first challenge and gave the ball to McCartney who fed Vaz Te who took on one defender but then lost the ball. The reason I bring this up is that Vaz Te did this all game long and I lost count of the amount of times he lost the ball.

A misplaced pass from Zaha saw Maynard nip in and he gave the ball to Cole who curled his shot wide. This was a rare attack and it was positive to see this so early on the second period.

And we should have done better just three minutes later when Noble put Cole through but he opted to pass the ball to Vaz Te who took a poor first touch and was challenged.

Vaz Te was wasteful when on the ball and his poor shot (almost a pass back) was easily saved by Speroni.

A minute later and Vaz Te was replaced by Gary O’Neil who had opened his account for the club last Tuesday at Blackpool with the third goal.

We were seeing a lot of the ball but did very little with it. We would get to a certain point and then simply turn back or knock it sideward. McCartney and O’Brien were both offering width but when they got the ball they were reluctant to put a early cross into the area. In the case of O’Brien he just seemed as though he did not have the ability to do so with many of his crosses being blocked.

Palace had done very little in the second half but were always dangerous on the break and they should have scored when a long ball over the top evaded both Faye and Reid and Jermaine Easter was in on goal but thrashed his shot wide.

On the 73rd minute mark Nicky Maynard was replaced by Sam Baldock. Maynard had kept going but just could not get in the game enough to make any impact.

Baldock nearly made that impact just moments after coming on with Noble played the ball through to Baldock who got in behind the defender but the angle was very tight although he did manage to get a shot on target which Speroni saved and pushed it behind for a corner.

Our best chance of the game came a few moments later when a ball towards Cole saw the striker superbly find Baldock who hit it first time but Speroni saved with his legs. Baldock should have done better with the chance and if he had knocked it the other side of the keeper it was surely a goal.

Four minutes of added time were awarded and despite a bit of a scramble in the area after Collison but the cross into area Tomkins couldn’t manage to get a shot in and it was easily saved.

The final whistle blew and boos rang around Upton Park. Later that afternoon Southampton beat Watford 3-0 at Vicarage Road to claim top spot again.

Player Reviews

Robert Green
If you have to pick a West Ham man of the match then for me it was Robert Green and that is testament to how well Palace played in that first half. Green made a few excellent stops but you would expect that from an excellent keeper.

Joey O’Brien
Troubled less defensively than he should have been given his lack of pace but he made a few very strong challenges and didn’t pull out of any 50/50’s. Going forward he was poor and lacked ideas, his crossing was poor and he was too slow.

Winston Reid
Recently he has been one of our best players and his progression has been remarkable. He deserves his place in the starting line up but this was poor display and he looked very shaky. He was bailed out by Faye a number of times. He could not get to grips with Jermaine Easter who gave him a hard day.

Abdoulaye Faye
Read the game well, was great in the air as he usually is and made some vital blocks especially in that first half.

George McCartney
A good display from McCartney although like O’Brien when going forward he simply does not know what to with the ball which isn’t his fault as he is a left back and not an attacking left winger. He wasn’t helped by the lack of movement from his team mates when moving forward with the ball.

Julien Faubert
Just couldn’t get into the game and when he did get the ball he generally just gave it back to the opposition. I would have kept him on during the second half and moved him to right back with O’Brien coming off for Cole.

James Tomkins
Offered very little in his newfound midfield role and he was not very noticeable during the game.

Mark Noble
His passing was not of his usual standard and he was very frustrating at times. Too slow when on the ball although there was very little to aim at. Despite this when we were going forward he was usually the main supply and Noble never hid during the game.

Jack Collison
I received a text message from a mate near the end of the game saying “Collison is shit, all he does is give the ball back to them”. It was hard to disagree on this evidence.

Ricardo Vaz Te
A lot of hot air from the new man who just couldn’t make any impact on the game.

Nicky Maynard
He also could not get into the game but in fairness, knocking the long ball with him not exactly being a ‘presence ‘made it difficult for him.

Subs Used

Carlton Cole (on for Faubert 45 mins)
Certainly we looked better when he was on the pitch and if you are going to play a 4-5-1 formation at home then you will have to play Cole down the middle as there is no one else that can do this role better at the club.

Gary O’Neil (on for Vaz Te 58 mins)
Whilst Vaz Te was not doing much this was still a surprising substitution given that we had lacked width and O’Neil is not exactly an out and out winger. Apart from getting booked he was not in the game.

Sam Baldock (on for Maynard 73 mins)
Of all the subs used he was the one who made the most impact and perhaps should have scored one of the two chances which came his way in his first few minutes on the pitch. I like Baldock and would like to see more of him but as fourth choice striker his chances may be limited.

Subs Not Used: Lansbury, Potts

Bookings: O’Neil

Man Of The Match: Robert Green

Crystal Palace: Speroni, McShane, Parr, McCarthy, Gardner, Ambrose, Dikgacoi, Jedinak, Zaha, Martin, Easter
Substitutes: Price, Garvan, Murray, O'Keefe, Scannell

Attendance: 34,900

Overall

As we enter March we are certainly in a position we would have wanted to be and despite this poor display we must keep confident that we will achieve what we have set out to do this season which is of course gain promotion back to the top division.

Our lack of ideas going forward despite having brought in two attacking players in Vaz Te and Maynard was particularly disappointing and I do not feel I am being unfair to have expected to see a bit more from an attacking perspective.

Palace came with a game plan to frustrate and most teams do when playing us on our own pitch but at the same time I was impressed with some of the football they played and in Zaha they really do have a very good player who sadly for them is unlikely to be there next season.

Next Game – Cardiff (a), Sunday 4th March 12.45pm KO

This is without a doubt one of our biggest games of the season and will be very difficult. We certainly need to get something from this game and given our good away form I would hope we can beat them. They are one of the best sides in the division and today take on Liverpool in the League Cup Final.

The result of this one will tell you a lot about our prospect s from here on out and I do not underestimate the importance on getting a positive result in this one.



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Sams View

I think the last three games caught up with the lads today as the vast majority of them turned out again.

I might have made a slight mistake in picking exactly the same 11 that started at Blackpool, but I thought they'd done so well and deserved to come and play at home in this game.

We livened it up in the second half and got a little better but still didn't quite hit the heights we know we can. But it was still a very, very good point - and one that increases our total at the top.

I thought Palace set out their stall very well; it was very difficult for us to find the right areas to break them down today. I think they defended very well and that prevented us from getting our passing as good and [as] sharp as it has been recently.

We failed - certainly in the first half - to create any real chances at all. We did a little better in the second half but all the lads are disappointed, to be fair to them. What they've had to face over the last four games, it's been a magnificent achievement getting two wins and two draws.

[On the Fan reaction]

The players are disappointed. As a manager you learn to accept anything, you know what I mean? So anything that comes your way, you just have to try and take it. Yes, I'll agree with one or two of the players [who] were a little disappointed they got booed - they said that in the dressing room - because we're top of the league.

But we've built up expectations by doing so well here against Millwall with ten men, here against Southampton with ten men and by playing really well at Blackpool - as all the travelling away fans would have told everybody. We didn't deliver today, but I think I've just explained the reasons why.

But they've got to stay with us, they've got to stay patient and we'll all benefit in the end. I've just said to the lads that we're all disappointed, they've just shown their disappointment. They cheer us when we win, they're not too happy that we didn't play so well today. That's the way it goes.



Season 2011/12 Scorers and Red Cards

Carlton Cole - 9 (9 League)
Kevin Nolan - 7 (7 League)
Mark Noble - 7 (7 League)
Sam Baldock - 5 (5 League)
Jack Collison - 3 (3 League)
Winston Reid - 2 (2 League)
John Carew - 2 (2 League)
Frederique Piquionne - 2 (2 League)
James Tomkins - 2 (2 League)
Own Goal - 2 (2 League)
Papa Bouba Diop - 1 (1 League)
Joey O'Brien - 1 (1 League)
Matthew Taylor - 1 (1 League)
Henri Lansbury - 1 (1 League)
Julien Faubert - 1 (1 League)
Frank Nouble - 1 (1 League)
Nicky Maynard - 1 (1 League)
Ricardo Vaz Te - 1 (1 League)
Gary O'Neil - 1 (1 League)
Scott Parker - 1 (1 League)
Junior Stanislas - 1 (1 Cup)


Red Cards

Callum McNaughton - 1 (vs Aldershot home)
Frederique Piquionne - 1 (vs Portsmouth home)
Joey O'Brien - 1 (vs Reading away)
Jack Collison - 1 (vs Reading away)
Kevin Nolan - 1 (vs Millwall home)
Matthew Taylor - 1 (vs Southampton home)
Robert Green - 1 (vs Blackpool away)



Email: vinnywhufc@hotmail.com

Supersonic 5:05 Tue Feb 28
Re: Vinny's Crystal Palace Report

Cheers.

Ozziehammer 12:46 Tue Feb 28
Re: Vinny's Crystal Palace Report

Chi-town, Simple concept isn't it?
Why can't BFS see it?

, 9:02 Mon Feb 27
Re: Vinny's Crystal Palace Report

The fans were booing Palace for having the cheek to compete.

Northern Sold 8:59 Mon Feb 27
Re: Vinny's Crystal Palace Report

Come on Mac the boys were in tears in the changing room after.... bunch of pigs our fans are

One McAvennieeeeee 8:56 Mon Feb 27
Re: Vinny's Crystal Palace Report

I really admire the way the gaffer manages to deflect the attention away. Directing it to the life blood of this club could come back to bite him on the arse though.

Vinny 8:50 Mon Feb 27
Re: Vinny's Crystal Palace Report

I would be interested to see the opinion of someone who did actually boo and reasons for this other than "I pay my money I can do what I want'.

overbyyer 7:43 Mon Feb 27
Re: Vinny's Crystal Palace Report

BFS interview:
"But they've got to stay with us, they've got to stay patient and we'll all benefit in the end"


Having to ask fans to stay with us makes us a laughing stock, you would assume we were scrapping for our lives like February last season, not top of league as we were at that point on Saturday.

Chi-townHammer 5:42 Mon Feb 27
Re: Vinny's Crystal Palace Report

Ozzie> goalkeeper distribution is always a pet peeve of mine. The simple concept of starting with possession seems lost on some coaches.

The moment that ball gets punted up-field it's a 50\\50 ball, I know the ball gets there quicker, but you have just given away possession.

hacko 7:25 Mon Feb 27
Re: Vinny's Crystal Palace Report

Booing the team when they stand top is mystifying and does NOTHING to raise their spirits for the second half to come. A more telling response would be to remain quiet in the face of one-dimensional attacking style which mostly fell into the hands of the Palace defence. As we know, its impossible to drown out the booers but the performance did little to encourage applause either.
Thanks for the report.

Ozziehammer 1:48 Mon Feb 27
Re: Vinny's Crystal Palace Report

Football the way it is these days and the amount of stats that are available and the fact that BFS is considered a good analysist you wonder...WHY THE FUCK THEY HAVN'T WORKED OUT THAT THE BIG BOOT DOWN THE MIDDLE DOESN'T FUCKING WORK.

Every clearance in the first half, without exception, was a big boot and without doing the stats I would guess 85 % minimum resulted in CP gaining control and midfield as a result.

The second half saw Green use his defenders, I think, 3 times and all three saw us with control in their half. IT WAS ONE REASON WHY WE LOOKED BETTER IN THE SECOND HALF.

WHY can't they see this?????? It's not fucking rocket science!

We have got the players to take the ball out of defence now, for fuck's sake let's start doing it

I'm so fucking frustrated at this, it has been going on for years and it just doesn't work.

We did it with Benyouin and we're still doing it with Noble. How do you expect these small players to run midfield when you don't give them the fucking ball; it keeps flying over their head and they have to work thier arses off to get it back every time.

Just ONCE give Green an instruction not to boot it over the half way line, whatever happened to players waiting outside the penalty area to take the ball from goal kicks?

Look I could be wrong, but just watch Man U , Man City, Arsenal, Spurs and watch their keepers and see how they do it; I doubt I am.

Honestly if we tried it and we got beat I 'd shut up.
.

Ronald_antly 1:36 Mon Feb 27
Re: Vinny's Crystal Palace Report

As I've said on another thread, booing is not how I roll.

However, I may have been inclined to stand up at half time, and shout out "That is simply not good enough. Pull your fucking fingers out!!"

Would that have been acceptable?

The Mutts Nutz 1:30 Mon Feb 27
Re: Vinny's Crystal Palace Report

"Underneath it all it is perhaps supporters becoming disillusioned with the state of football in this country and the lack of connection to any of the players they are paying to watch."

You've got your finger on the pulse, Vinny. This is what underpins 'post-Euro 96ism' - all displaced into an unrealistic sense of entitlement.

It's no cake-walk here is it and it'll get tighter as the season concludes. Thanks for your efforts mate, always appreciated

Hammerhermit 1:12 Mon Feb 27
Re: Vinny's Crystal Palace Report

Thanks Vinny as always great report.

The red will always stand and can't be removed. The ban was lifted because the red card was wrongly given. It still stands you can't remove it.

Vinny 1:05 Mon Feb 27
Re: Vinny's Crystal Palace Report

I can reveal that the yellow writing is just the Crystal Palace team.

hacko 12:39 Mon Feb 27
Re: Vinny's Crystal Palace Report

Why use yellow on a while background? Its daft. Its like Sky putting daft junk music on while people are speaking. Obstructs what people are trying to listen to or in your case, makes writing hard to read. Am I wrong?

Vinny 11:07 Sun Feb 26
Re: Vinny's Crystal Palace Report

Well I still remember the red card.

I still remember us going down to ten men and Henri Lansbury having to go in goal.

So the red card did happen.

Eric.C. 11:03 Sun Feb 26
Re: Vinny's Crystal Palace Report

Vinny -- to rescind = to invalidate. (so remove that fucking card --this part of the posting comes from Rob Green).

Vinny 10:55 Sun Feb 26
Re: Vinny's Crystal Palace Report

He still received the red card during the game though.

It was the ban which was rescinded.

DutchCourage 9:49 Sun Feb 26
Re: Vinny's Crystal Palace Report

Thanks Vinny. I see you haven't yet rescinded Green's red card yet.

JACK1 9:26 Sun Feb 26
Re: Vinny's Crystal Palace Report

Nice one Vinny - subtle use of the legal copyright warning ;-)

dicksie3 9:06 Sun Feb 26
Re: Vinny's Crystal Palace Report

Cheers, Vinny... Not a lot to say on the match, really...

Please don't use that yellow font again, it makes me feel sick!...

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