Hammers Dumped Out of FA Cup by Bilic’s Much Changed West Brom Side

I have not felt angry about the club for a while, but I felt anger on Saturday. I’m not angry with the owners – I don’t think that will achieve anything. They are here for the long haul. (Although there is talk of a stay away protest for the Liverpool game) I am not angry with Moyes, he was badly treated the last time he managed us and now he has inherited a team in a torrid state and low on confidence and quality. He is doing the best he can.

But I am angry with the team. Where is the passion? Where is the desire to change things on the pitch? Where is that extra half a yard to make the tackle? Pick up on the second ball? Make a run off the ball to give your team mate options for passing? The lack of passion and desire was demonstrated by Haller – a player who has continuously underperformed for us – who just turned a strolled back when the ball went out of play near the end of the match instead of rushing off to get the ball and hurry the opposition along.

Moyes was brave enough to make three changes at half time, but it was too late. Antonio has been greatly missed, his passion, pace and movement and desire to get forward, take players on and make things happen are what we lack across the pitch. His run onto the pitch just before half time roused the crowd for sure.

Ajeti did well, but with a lazy strike partner in Haller, he can’t be in two places at once. Bilic set his team up to cancel us out, and fortunately we let them do that. Any team who comes to London Stadium know we do not use the width, do not run at teams and take our sweet time to pass the ball sideways and backwards allowing the opposition to regroup and regain possession.

Teams know that we are soft at the back and the thrashing at Leicester last week highlighted how flat footed we are at the back when teams come at us. That match did not put me in the right frame of mind to witness our exit from the FA Cup at the hands of Bilic and his Championship leading team.

I am also angry that we are in this position now after all has been said and all the investment made in the team and with the stadium to take us to the next level. I don’t think Moyes can perform miracles and we need to hope that there are three teams worse than us otherwise we will find ourselves in the Championship next season. We will wave at Bilic as his team swap places with us – imagine that?

Liverpool on Wednesday and then Brighton on Saturday. Its hard to say what will happen for sure, but with the fans becoming increasingly unhappy with how they perceive they club is being run like a circus it could turn ugly again like that home game against Burnley the other season with fans running onto the pitch and being tackled by players. Maybe it needs to get to that before we see some real changes at the club.

Hammers Labour A Draw As Moyes Old Club Comes To Town

The Moyes effect seems to have stalled somewhat having seen the Hammers secure 1 point from a possible 6. The match against The Blades was dire and with Moyes return to London Stadium against his old club, there was little else to cheer except not losing.

Randolph returned between the sticks and put in a solid performance but there were some noticeable under performers who need to have a good look at themselves as we bed in for a relegation fight until the end of the season.

One player that caught my eye was Haller – our £40m star signing who has struggled to settle in the Premier league. It could be argued that Henry took a while to settle as well, but then again at £40m you’d expect some kind of return for your spondulies.

Everton’s equaliser by Lewin was down to Haller not moving as the ball came in and Lewin reacted to snatch a goal. Haller literally just watched the ball. Shocking. But then his movement throughout the game was also noticeably poor. He didn’t run, chase, rarely tackled and was easily knocked off the ball – an his is not a physical lightweight but seems to have no physical presence when in possession.

I missed the fans silent protest, but inside the stadium the atmosphere is muted with little to cheer about on the pitch. Hopefully, Moyes has a plan for some well needed fresh legs upfront so lets hope the owners are able to support him with funds to improve the squad.

We need to give Moyes time as he has a lot of work to do to get the team functioning at a level where we can compete in the Premier League, otherwise we may see ourselves falling through the trap door into the Championship and my guess is it won’t be so easy to climb back out again.

Moyes Brings Festive Cheer As The Hammers Thrash Bournemouth at London Stadium

What a match this was to send Hammer’s fans home with some well needed festive cheer after a miserable run of results under the now sacked Pellegrini. Not only has Moyes brought in some hope, but the team played with passion and purpose and showed what they can do when set up to play to their strengths.

The team were painful to watch under Pellegrini’s tenure where we had no width, no chasing for the ball and no pressing of the opposition to put them under pressure. Fans called for passion and the players delivered. Fans called for Haller and Anderson to step up and they did. Fans said Noble was losing his touch and he proved them wrong.

Moyes asked the team to win the fans over and they did with this performance. Bournemouth were poor, but you still have to win these games to make progress in this league. Noble deserved his man of the match vote and Haller’s bicycle kick showed us what he can do when the ball is whipped in from the wings.

A team performance and lets hope with more time Moyes can get the team back in to winning ways. COYI!

Pellegrini Sacked As Hammers Poor Form Continues with 2-1 Defeat to Leicester City at London Stadium

A thoroughly miserable night of football that has capped a difficult year and first half of the season for the Hammers. Pellegrini was brought in to take the team and the club to a higher level and with £150m invested in players surely we should have seen some return from that investment?

Sadly, since Fabianski was injured during the 2-2 draw at Bournemouth on 28th September, we have seen a rapid decline from the promising start to the season that really began with being dumped out of the EFL Cup at Oxford United a few days before.

Injuries have played their part, but far more than that are the poor performances, the ineffective tactics and often bizarre substitutions that have left us 17th in the Premier League table and only 1 point from the drop zone. The players that performed so well last season are struggling and this mainly due to either being played out of their natural position, or forced to play in a system that does not suit their natural style of play.

Moyes is being lined up as Pellegrini’s successor but the problems we have at the club go beyond the manager and lie squarely at the feet of the owners, whose short term gain for profit has left the team in dire need of an overhaul. Modern football is less about entertainment and more about money, less about passion, loyalty and commitment and more about profit and the turnover of managers, players and hangers on has had its negative effects on professional football far more than the introduction of VAR.

We will support the team through this difficult time, and give the manager our support but long term the owners, and some of the players to be fair, need to look long and hard at what they are doing to the club. COYIs!

West Ham Collapse Against Arsenal at London Stadium

What a miserable night for football Monday 9th December was. We went from needing probably another goal to seal the match to collapsing against Arsenal and losing all 3 points.

We have been through difficult times before but its hard to see how we will climb out of what is in fact a relegation battle. If we lose to the Saints at the weekend then we are in serious trouble and I suspect the owners may go for a managerial change.

Boleyn Ground Stadium Tour

Boleyn Ground, Upton Park

Before the bulldozers rolled in to dismantle the old stadium I took one of my sons on a tour one over cast day in May 2016.

For me, it was an emotional and moving experience but one I needed to take to finally see that we had left the old ground behind and we needed to move on to pastures new.

The old memories flooded back, the sound of the crowd as the tube train pulled into Upton Park Station, waiting on the platform for the crowd to clear to climb the stairs and out onto Green Street, taking in the pre-match colours and songs from the fans as they walked down to the stadium.

The ground was always used for community football once the curtains had drawn on the season and it was great to see teams playing on the green grass of the once great theatre of dreams during our tour.

In my mind I filled the stadium with colour, fans, songs, chants, shouts and cheers as we were taken around the pitch after walking up through the tunnel from the changing rooms. Not much had changed on the face of it, it was as if the stadium was just empty until the next game.

Inside the corridors and rooms you noticed that door handles, name plates and anything else that could have been unscrewed and easily removed were taken down, apparently to stop people from selling these online. But much of the old stadium has been sold online, a profit gained from a memory past.

Interestingly, Jonjo Heuerman has managed to salvage the named bricks that were on one of the outer stadium walls and is trying to reconnect each brick with its owner. An excellent initiative that I’m sure those fans who bought the bricks will very much appreciate.

It was hard to pull myself away in the end, the memories swirled around my head with just one last look before heading off to the Queen’s Fish Bar for a fish and chip lunch before heading back into Upton Park station for what would be the last time. It really did feel like leaving home, bags packed with treasured memories some caught on camera, but many interwoven with the memorabilia gathered over the years.

Dawud

Players tunnel entrance to pitch
Players tunnel entrance to pitch
Rows of seats, Boleyn Ground
Rows of seats, Boleyn Ground
Boleyn Ground, pitch side
Boleyn Ground, pitch side
Corporate Box, Boleyn Ground
Corporate Box, Boleyn Ground
Bobby Moore Stand, Boleyn Ground
Bobby Moore Stand, Boleyn Ground
Trevor Brooking Banner, Boleyn Ground
Trevor Brooking Banner, Boleyn Ground
Bobby Moore Banner, Boleyn Ground
Bobby Moore Banner, Boleyn Ground
Inside the ground, Boleyn Ground
Inside the ground, Boleyn Ground
View from the net, Boleyn Ground
View from the net, pitch side, Boleyn Ground
Comment wall, inside the stadium, Boleyn Ground
Comment wall, inside the stadium
Walkway into the stands, Boleyn Ground
Walkway into the stands, Boleyn Ground
Named bricks, exterior wall, Boleyn Ground
Named bricks, exterior wall, Boleyn Ground
My son, Musa, part of the team
My son, Musa part of the West Ham United team
Panoramic view of the pitch, Boleyn Ground
Panoramic view of the pitch, Boleyn ground

Boleyn Ground, Upton Park

The move from the Boleyn Ground to London Stadium has divided Hammers fans from the moment the plans were presented right up to the present day.

Many fans have stopped attending games, not renewed their season tickets and following the many blogs and social media sites since the move it is clear there are still very strong feelings about how the club is managed, particularly in relation to the stadium move.

Personally I hate change of any sort and get thoroughly miserable when I have to break from my routine. Don’t we all? Most of us find it difficult to accept changes but eventually most of us accept them as part of life and move on.

But, for many life long Hammers fans, this is one change they still refuse to accept. I remember having discussions with Gary Firminger – founder and editor of Over Land and Sea (OLAS) who sold copies outside the Boleyn Ground standing on his step ladder before every home game gathering a crowd with his loud voice. He refused to accept the change and has, as far as I know, never attended a game at the London Stadium.

Gary was part of the match day experience and my personal routine was to chat and buy a copy of OLAS and read it before the start of the match and at half time with a coffee.

Some life long Hammers have tried the new stadium but find it hard to call it home and say the heart and soul of the club have been ripped out. For sure, the atmosphere is very different and although we now have a world class stadium, it is taking a while to feel like home – if it ever will. Some of these fans – people I know – have stopped attending games as well.

Memories are what many of us hold on to, as a means of keeping the past alive within us, of hoping for a better future but also to remind us of what we had, what we lived through and as a stepping stone to the future.

As the flats are being completed over the old Boleyn Ground, and changes being made to the new stadium to make it feel like home, its worth taking a step back into the past to remember the wonderful times we had on Green Street.

Dawud

From The Stands Booklet

My photo booklet From The Stands is now on sale. I have yet to find an online home for it but if you would like a copy then please get in touch. I will send you PayPal details and you can let me know where to post the booklet.

The booklet is £5 excluding postage (£6.32 for 2nd Class post in Uk)

The photographs represent the experience of being a West Ham fan at the London Stadium and is the first in a series of printed booklets with quotes from fans talking about why they support their club.

Its an excellent stocking filler for any West Ham fan this Christmas.

Thank you

Dawud

From the Stands

When my mum passed away my brother and I spent quite some time going through her things. Never an easy thing to do but to be honest, I was grateful to share this time with my brother to remember my mum and what she meant to us both. 

Memories, locked within so many different everyday things like my mums scarf – the smell took me back to when I would get a warm hug and a kiss on the cheek, the smell of her scarf filling my nostrils. Smells, like some many other things we often take for granted, can carry powerful memories that can bring a smile, a laugh, a tear and many other emotions to the surface.

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My mum was a hoarder of things – artwork, for example from my children and of photographs of the family. Boxes and boxes of faded, folded, torn, worn black and white photos and prints with that sixties and seventies faded chromatic colour all stacked on top of each other and pushed together in no particular order. 

There were some powerful memories, plenty of tears and a longing for those days to come back to fill our childhood home with the bustle of life as we knew it. Of course, time must move on but with the faded photos I found myself easily slipping back in time, a wedding, christening, Christmas, birthday and New Year’s Eve party all captured and preserved in faded colours of those dog eared and worn images.

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We all have significant life events captured in a catalogue of photos, many stored away and rarely seen. But now with technology as it is, photos are easy to take but still not so easily remembered. Sharing a blurred photo taken on your phone through social media doesn’t have the same excitement we had waiting for the prints to be developed at the local chemist. If only to realise that they were all too dark, blurred or everyone’s heads were cut out of the frame. I’m sure we all have some of those in a box in the loft. 

I liken my photography to capturing moments in time, everyday moments that tell a story, filled with emotion that would otherwise be lost. Or just a series of images that record how things change or have changed. This is what I try to do through my photography and it’s been great to develop my skill to be able to capture the world around me one click at a time.

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Going to the matches and using my camera to record the match day experience is part of my attempt to record the everyday so that is serves as a valuable memory of the past. The joy of a goal and a win, the low of a defeat and frustration, sometimes angrily expressed at the players and the manager. Capturing these moments against the backdrop of the match serve as a valuable reminder of how we invest our passion for West Ham United that has been passed down from generations or picked up for the first time within us and the people we know.

I’m interested in people and their stories, fans who have come to West Ham through their own personal journeys. By the time we settle in front of the screen, or singing out ‘I’m forever blowing bubbles’ arms held aloft as the players come out into the pitch, we are locked into the emotion of the game. We are part of a family and the connection we feel fuels our passion and builds the excitement. 

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We arrive at that point in time holding our history within us and all the life events that have lead us to that moment. In our dedication we wear a favourite scarf, carry a lucky charm, have our match day rituals and sing as hard as we can as if this will inspire the team to victory.

I want to tell those stories that people have inside them, share and preserve them for others to experience. It seems that despite it being so easy to record our lives through our phones, the speed of social media takes us further away from the memories themselves. So many photos and videos of our lives that we don’t really stop to talk about amongst the likes and shares on Facebook.

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From The Stands is an Idea I have been working on for a while and I want to be able to capture some of those moments in time that tell a story that will be enriched with the memories of fans. I want to match some of those memories to key moments in the history of the club, so that history comes to life. Personal stories and recollections that we can relate to but help create a living history of the family to whom we all feel a part of in some way.

I met a 92 year old Hammer as I was putting my photos up for a little exhibition at Canary Wharf Idea Store and he was telling me about how he managed to get in to see the World Cup Final at Wembley in 1966 without a ticket. It reminded me of the times I used to slip into the Boleyn Ground once the matches had started as the security would open the large gates a nudge and let fans into the ground for a couple of quid. 

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These memories can be passed down but when matched with a visual reminder, bound to moments we all share or can relate to, they become powerful and timeless. They become part of a history to which we all can feel some belonging to.

If you’d like to be part of project this please let me know. I know there are people with very different, diverse and varied experiences that would serve as a wonderful history of our club seen through the eyes of fans. At those times when we get frustrated with the club and the players it’s worth remembering why we are here, why we support the club and what it means to us and those who we share that with.

I will be sharing my photos and the stories of fans through a regular printed zine during the season and the first edition is out now, which contains photos of the exhibition.

I also publish my photos on my Instagram account: http://www.instagram.com/from_thestands/

And I also publish my photos on WestHamTillIDie blog: https://www.westhamtillidie.com/authors/dawudmarsh/posts

Dawud