Newport County v West Ham United Official Match Thread

[boxman]

wow surprised by the negativity.. i suppose i shouldn't be, after all this is west ham

thought we played better than expected considering the 10 changes, was actually pretty worried with our starting lineup, in the end i don't think they caused us too much trouble, thought it was quite a comfortable win in the end

our reserve team should win that of course.. but the x-factor is the mentality of the two teams, one is going thru a really bright patch, just missed out on promotion after qualifying late, undefeated for quite a while and rarely conceding goals.. where as our team is made up of a group of players struggling for minutes in a squad that is under performing, players who are in poor form and low on confidence

i have to say i am happy with the performance and the result, wilshere said professional, i agree, happy to see our reserve players putting in the effort and showing the right attitude.. far better than the last time pellegrini put out a team like this in a comp like this

some of the players there are giving a nudge to pellegrini that maybe they deserve another shot on the starting 11 soon, sanchez, balbuena, cresswell, wilshere did well imho

really happy about sanchez because rice, although he has been ok and improving he does need to offer more when we are playing out of the back, sanchez showed him how it's done... but tbf against much easier opposition, they didn't press us as hard and gave the midfield plenty of time and space - which makes all the difference

great shot of confidence for our squad which i think is something we really needed, esp after that thug match against city and the brighton contest

think this will give us the boost we need to take on a fearless and very motivated norwich, really tough game but feeling better about it now

[Clayton]

wow surprised by the negativity.. i suppose i shouldn't be, after all this is west ham

thought we played better than expected considering the 10 changes, was actually pretty worried with our starting lineup, in the end i don't think they caused us too much trouble, thought it was quite a comfortable win in the end

should our reserve squad be beat them? of course.. but the x-factor is the mentality of the two teams, one is going thru a really bright patch, just missed out on promotion after qualifying late, undefeated for quite a while and rarely conceed goals.. the other team made up of a group of players struggling for minutes in a squad that is under performing, players who are in poor form and low on confidence

i have to say i am happy with the performance and the result, wilshere said professional, i agree, happy to our players who are struggling giving the proper effort and showing the right attitude.. far better than the last time pellegrini put out a team like this in a comp like this

some of the players there are giving a nudge to pellegrini that maybe they deserve another shot on the starting 11 soon, sanchez, balbuena, cresswell, wilshere did well imho

really happy about sanchez because rice, although he has been ok and improving he does need to offer more when we are playing out of the back, sanchez showed him how it's done... but tbf against much easier opposition, they didn't press us as hard and gave the midfield plenty of time and space - which makes all the difference

great shot of confidence for our squad which i think is something really needed, esp after that thug match against city and brighton

Negativity , for fucks sake Newport are tier 4 side not a premiership or even a championship side , who are well drilled with a pretty good defence who gave a good account of themselves . Reckon we could have lost this if they had better quality up front and it wasn't till Antonio got injured and Anderson came on did we show any quality in the final third . Sanchez , cresswell , Snodgrass are never 1st team players not even premiership quality , Zabaleta looked well past it , Wilshere had some nice touches , he is a premiership player with alot of talent and experience at the top level of the game who should waltz around these players on his off days , did he , no .
Ajeti on his first start , looked to have some talent and needs more game time , Fornals again showed what he can do , but again needs more time on the pitch . Roberto was lucky between the sticks and managed to keep a clean sheet without really having to try .
Can only say well pleased to have got through with a win and a clean sheet , hope Pellegrini plays a better line up next game.

[IronsForever]

Cant say I was overly impressed last night with the win but very thankful , all be it against a very good tier 4 side doing ok in their division . All I can say is thank god Antonio got his injury and Anderson was brought on because he made the difference . They could have been 2 up by then if they had someone on the pitch who could of put their chances away . Wilshere had some nice touches ( just hope this isn't his level now ) Fornals needs more time on the pitch and it showed , Ajeti on his first start could and should of scored a couple , time will tell really needs game time , but I liked what I saw of him . Our fullbacks are atrocious , doubt they would get games in a championship side now , neither can cross , defensively inept , Zabaletas footballing brain is no more and kept getting found out for lack of pace with his poor positioning . Sanchez though he did ok at times against Newport is a very poor substitute for Rice his passing is poor think he probably passed to the opposition far to many times , just hope Rice never gets a injury . Diop was a accident waiting to happen the 1st half , but did improve in the second half , why that was is beyond me as he is a quality defender as is Balbuena . Snodgrass was shite when we got him and still is , never a premiership player for a team hoping to improve , really do not know why a youngster wasn't given a chance . Roberto did what he had to between the sticks and kept us in the game by just being their .

Can you believe how inadequate our crossing is? How hard is it to cross a ball and go over the first defender and not clear everyone?

[andyginbrasil]

Can you believe how inadequate our crossing is? How hard is it to cross a ball and go over the first defender and not clear everyone?

I agree Irons, very frustrating, but what is beyond me is why, every time they have to get to the by line to put the cross in. Whatever happened to whipping in that early cross when no one is expecting it. The same goes for throw ins, it seems that it's only the fullbacks who have the authority to take them. Catch them by surprise and take a quick one, all teams know now that the fullbacks are going to take it so have time to reorganize, catch them out with a quick one as I remember we did against Man City that resulted in a goal.

[IronsForever]

Can you believe how inadequate our crossing is? How hard is it to cross a ball and go over the first defender and not clear everyone?

I agree Irons, very frustrating, but what is beyond me is why, every time they have to get to the by line to put the cross in. Whatever happened to whipping in that early cross when no one is expecting it. The same goes for throw ins, it seems that it's only the fullbacks who have the authority to take them. Catch them by surprise and take a quick one, all teams know now that the fullbacks are going to take it so have time to reorganize, catch them out with a quick one as I remember we did against Man City that resulted in a goal.

I think that early cross goes out the window because the 2 runners up top have sampled previous crossing exploits and stop making runs , or make half hearted runs. You start pumping in decent early crosses , the front guys will start making positive runs.

[Brookbonds73]

At the end of the day, it's night.
That's about it really.

[h69]

wow surprised by the negativity.. i suppose i shouldn't be, after all this is west ham

thought we played better than expected considering the 10 changes, was actually pretty worried with our starting lineup, in the end i don't think they caused us too much trouble, thought it was quite a comfortable win in the end

our reserve team should win that of course.. but the x-factor is the mentality of the two teams, one is going thru a really bright patch, just missed out on promotion after qualifying late, undefeated for quite a while and rarely conceding goals.. where as our team is made up of a group of players struggling for minutes in a squad that is under performing, players who are in poor form and low on confidence

i have to say i am happy with the performance and the result, wilshere said professional, i agree, happy to see our reserve players putting in the effort and showing the right attitude.. far better than the last time pellegrini put out a team like this in a comp like this

some of the players there are giving a nudge to pellegrini that maybe they deserve another shot on the starting 11 soon, sanchez, balbuena, cresswell, wilshere did well imho

really happy about sanchez because rice, although he has been ok and improving he does need to offer more when we are playing out of the back, sanchez showed him how it's done... but tbf against much easier opposition, they didn't press us as hard and gave the midfield plenty of time and space - which makes all the difference

great shot of confidence for our squad which i think is something we really needed, esp after that thug match against city and the brighton contest

think this will give us the boost we need to take on a fearless and very motivated norwich, really tough game but feeling better about it now

I enjoyed going there last night and actually walking out not embarrassed

• Gave a few players who are rusty a run out
  Gave Ajeti a debut
  Only used 1 player from Saturdays starting lineup
  Beat a team that knocked Leicester and Boro out and held Man City for 45 mins last season
  Clean Sheet
  rested all but Diop and Anderson
  Normally get knocked out by teams like these. They were unbeaten this season
  Anderson gave their rIght back a runaround (he is a Millwall fan)

Whats not to like ?

Only downer is that Antonio's injury looks bad and Anderson had to play but we are in the hat while resting most of the team and that is all that matters.

[boxman]

yeah losing antonio is going to cost us something, almost forgot about that
hopefully he's only pulled his hamstring and he'll be back in contention a week after the break...

worried that he's torn it, looked pretty bad, seemed to be in quite a bit of pain.. might be out for 6 weeks, thats going to be a massive miss for us - fingers crossed

[h69]

Looks like Antonio has done a Hammy. This is why you don,t start the game with your best players.What is wrong with Holland or even letting fredericks play right wing? The season before last we lost Arnie , Lanzini and Obiang through cup games against lower leagues.Was it necessary to play Antonio tonight ?

He is not a starter for the first team so sensible he got some minutes. Trouble with players like him with explosive pace is they are always likely to do this but he should look at his warm up routine.

From where I was it looked like a really bad one. If he's torn it bad it could be 2-3 months.

[IronsForever]

yeah losing antonio is going to cost us something, almost forgot about that
hopefully he's only pulled his hamstring and he'll be back in contention a week after the break...

worried that he's torn it, looked pretty bad, seemed to be in quite a bit of pain.. might be out for 6 weeks, thats going to be a massive miss for us - fingers crossed

Michail Antonio is facing the prospect of an operation and three month lay-off after hobbling out of the match against Newport County last night.

There are real fears that the 30 year old – who has made such a great start to the season – may have snapped his hamstring.

He broke down after six minutes when bearing down on goal and the immediate reaction was that he was in big trouble although that was played down a little by manager Manuel Pellegrini after the game.

He suggested that Michail could be off for two weeks before making it clear that there could be no realistic prediction until today.

However ClaretandHugh learned this morning that such is the extent of the injury and associated bleeding that the player can’t be scanned for another two days at least.

And we were told by a highly placed source via e mail there were real fears that, just as was the case on his previous long term hamstring injury on the other leg, he would go under the knife and face a likely three months on the sidelines.

The " Injury Curse" continues!!! Who is next? Whilshire? Lanzini, Haller? lol