Potter’s magic inspires Hammers to win against Fulham at London Stadium
Hope everyone is safe and well.
We are in the process of recruiting a project co-ordinatior and have sent out the job advert to various places and are now waiting for application forms to hit our in box.
We know what we want this person to do and have a clear idea about what skills and experience they will need to demonstrate their suitability for this important project role to support adults with learning disabilities to become more active and improve health and well-being outcomes within the learning disability community.
When you have a clear idea about what you need in a person you are able to sort the wheat from the chaff as it were, and then interview the most suitable candidates. It’s not rocket science really, the project has a clear direction and set of outcomes and the new recruit will need to be able to show us they can deliver on times within the set timescale of the project.
In football any potential manager has to be able to convince the board that they are the best person for the job to take the club forward and get the players to produce the results required to build a successful team.
With some managers you know what you are getting, you do your homework and check their track record and say ‘That’s the person who can deliver what we want at this club’. Alternatively, you can have no clear idea what you want, or be convinced that the most important role in the club can be done on the cheap and just cross your fingers and hope that everything will work out fine. It depends whether you’re prepared to pay the right amount of money for the right person to come and work their magic.
You know what you’re getting with Potter, and despite the unhinged chaos he found himself in at Chelsea, he has his work at Brighton to show what he can bring to the club. With Lopetegui I really had no idea what we were getting, he seemed to have no clear idea or direction, he hadn’t even been to see the academy players and didn’t know what his best team was. The players often found it difficult to work with what they had been told and it almost felt as if they just got together as a team the week before.
Potter is confident, knows what he wants, comes across as someone with a plan, has spoken to each player in the academy team and is quickly assessing the first team squad and getting some of the players utilising their strengths and abilities already. The players are working more as a team, have purpose at times on the ball and you can see the level of commitment they now have, which was absent from the previous manager.
The Aston Villa result was expected in a way and there was no time for Potter to work with the players, but he impressed in his press conferences and media presentations and in going out of the FA Cup may, in the long term of this season, actually do us a favour whilst Potter settles at the club and begins the process of building his team for next season. Potter did well to negotiate a 2.5 year deal and I feel it is important to give him time this season to work out what he needs to take the club forward next season.
I was on my own walking to the stadium for this match, as it’s a school night the boys were unable to attend, but I was meeting with my brother as he has his seat next to mine. I was in a bit of a rush to get there and I really didn’t have the time to walk around the stadium pre match as I usually do. On my way along the Greenway I have been trying to capture fans walking to the stadium, silhouetted against the street lamps.
I quickly captured fans crossing the road towards the security check as I made my way directly to turnstile A to join the queue. The new camera is a little bigger but with my nifty 50mm lens on the body it doesn’t seem to be an issue with the security checking my deliberately battered and worn camera bag. I engage in a bit of distracting banter as I open the bag slightly and I’m quickly through and skip amongst the crowd around food and drink area just inside the stadium and then climb the stairs and into the stands.
The pyrotechnics are in full flame with music filling the bowl and a rush of excitement hits you as the teams spill onto the pitch and form a huddle before taking their places for the start of the match. I was actually looking forward to this match and felt we could get a result if we were able to deliver some of the performance we showed for large parts of the cup tie against Villa only a few days before.
The chanting and singing and atmosphere was electric as the crowd seemed to anticipate a better performance under the new gaffer and we were not to be disappointed. That new manager bounce had rippled through the fans and it helped build an atmosphere as the game started.
The visitors had their chances and we rode our luck at times as Harry Wilson hit the bar and we were outplayed for the first 30mins or so. Our defence needed to be sharper to snuff out some of those early opportunities for the Cottagers, who were left to with nothing to show for their initial attacking intent.
But we had purpose. The players were playing more as a team and you sensed everyone had a clear idea about their roles and what was expected of them. Something that had been lacking under Lopetegui and the progress made already with Potter at the helm added to our expectations. The manager himself has said he is building a ‘foundation of togetherness’ and that showed.
Kudus had the ball in the net but fans anxiously waited for the VAR review for potential offside, which was confirmed but we could see there was something different about the team and the crowd continued to urge the players forward.
And we didn’t have to wait long for the first goal as Carlos Soler collected a loose ball to curl his shot home. 1-0 the the Hammers. Now we could celebrate as we watched the players turn the game on its head in a frantic few minutes.
Only 2 mins later and we were celebrating again as Soucek, who has been such an amazing player for us over the years, headed home a telling cross from Aaron Wan-Bissaka. 2-0 to the home side and we fans could not believe what is happening. Fulham are a decent side and here we are tearing them apart.
But that wasn’t all going our way, except that Fulham were wasteful infant of goal and on another night it could have been a different game. But the crowd’s encouragement was not to be dampened.
There was even some fun with one fan holding up a yellow card for the foul on Fabianski as he rush off his line to gather the ball from another Fulham attack.
The game played out until the half time whistle, and whilst the teams filled off the pitch, we had a lot to chat about. There were so many positives from what we had seen already – the 2 goals in quick succession had really got us excited for more and as Guy Mowbray says on FIFA 24 ‘could this be the two punch knockout?”
Me and my brother were chatting about what Potter has done and needs to do to get the team reaching higher levels in the Premier League as I scanned around for anything going on in the stadiums.
But before we knew it, the players had returned to the pitch and the game restarted.
But we were not going to get everything our own way as Alex Iwobi managed to curl his effort beyond Fabianski to give Fulham a way into the match on 51mins. Anxiety began to creep in and despite the team continuing to play well, it seemed as if that good work from the tail end of the first half was going to be undone.
But Danny Ings, replacing Kudus who received much well deserved applause as he left the pitch, had an almost immediate impact as he forced Fulham keeper Bernd Leno into making an error, Paqueta was there to pick up the loose ball and fire home to restore the Hammer’s two goal advantage.
Wild scenes of celebration and we felt this was going to be our night. The fact that Ings pressed so well on the keeper and Paqueta was there to pick up the ball showed some of the work Potter has already done with the team. Before, it would have been an opportunity missed.
Players battled more, fought for those headers and if this the impact already, who knows what may happen by the end of the season. Can we dream of reaching Europe and bring Thursday night football back to the bowl? Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
Iwobi threatened to spoil the party with his brace after 78 minutes, but it was not to be. Irving replaced Soler and Scarles came on for Rodriguez and we managed to see the game out and the sense of intense celebration filled the stands as the final whistle blew after 6minutes of extra time.
Two of my favourite fans, Simon and Elaine, show a mixture of surprise and celebration as we wondered if we had seen a real turning point in our fortunes this season with some luck, some excellent periods of football from the players and a performance that deserved all three points Potter really could have waved his wand to bring the club to life again.
I thought it was a great touch for Potter and some of the team to clap the remaining fans at the end of the match. And shows his attention to detail because he realises the importance of the fans in building the togetherness required to be a successful club.
I managed to take a few shots before leaving the stadium and fans were checking the table – yes, we are above both Spurs and Man Utd. This fan was clearly happy and prepared to pose for a photo. We felt as if a weight had been lifted as we could honestly say we enjoyed an evenings football with lots of positives to focus on.
I walked around the stadium before heading home, clicking away to capture some past match shots of fans mingling amongst the food and drink stalls.
My new kit does a much better job under the low light conditions of the evening games at this time of the year. I can edit the RAW files to get some decent photos, and capture some of that light and contrast.
Well, my assessment is that the team are certainly transformed already in such a short period of time since Potter was appointed. He has his challenges, especially with key players out injured, and any team would struggle with such important players missing from their first team squads. But, Potter has already shown he is willing to utilise the academy to good effect, he is instilling some belief back into the players and fans and I for one am really looking forward to the Palace game, expecting another good performance and 3 more points.
Take care everyone
(Edit – this post was written before the Crystal Palace game)
Dawud
From the Stands 