WAYNE HAMMERS THEM

 

 

Last time around, Gianfranco Zola was West Ham manager, unfortunately for the Hammers he wasn't quite able to translates his playing skills to managerial ones. First up came a 4-0 win at Upton Park that had been our greatest result in that corner of London for some time. That was followed by a 3-0 win at Old Trafford and in both encounters we really managed to outclass our opponents and cruise to some pretty easy wins. However they ultimately weren't enough for us to take the title and the defeats the Hammers suffered at our hands ultimately weren't enough to sink them, though they didn't dodge relegation by much, enough though.

Before the start of this season though, Avram Grant took over as West Ham gaffer and after their early form his men were immediately written off as dead men walking, MUFC beating them 3-0 at Old Trafford probably didn't help matters. Now though, not only are we top of the league but the Hammers are looking a lot more competitive and the Reds' away form hadn't been the best so this Premiership match at Upton Park was certainly going to be interesting. Kuszczak was in goal, Fabio right back, Vidic(captain) and Smalling central defence, Carrick and Gibson centre mid, Park left mid, Rooney and Giggsy up front. Here we go again.

Well MUFC looked like they were going to start pretty well but one handball from a Reds defender and we had to deal with an 11th minute penalty, which Mark Noble slotted. After that, the Reds were determined to get an equaliser but failed to do so before the ref gave West Ham a second, more iffy penalty in the 25th minute. Noble slotted this one as well and suddenly we were in trouble. The Reds were certainly looking to pull one back before half time but Arvam Grant would claim that we could have been down to ten men! The fact is, my mood at half time was similar to that during our disasterous Carling Cup encounter with the Hammers - we needed this sort of result like we needed a hole in the head.

Fergie's response was to overhaul the team and try for the steamroller approach. We soon got the home side's attention but it took a while before our attacking play had any effect. In the 65th minute though Wayne fired in a free kick and the first thing the West Ham goalie knew about it was when in hit the back of the net! Then in the 73rd minute the England assasin picked up a pass from Valencia who fired it in low for his second. In the 73rd minute he completed his hat-trick with a penalty and shot his mouth off to a camera. Finally in the 84th minute Giggsy supplied sub Hernandez and the Hammers defence gave the Mexican way too much room to operate in and he grabbed United's fourth! This was nothing short of awesome! This is how it's done!

Elsewhere, Arsenal faced Blackburn at the Emirates Stadium. The Gunners started out pretty well and in fact caused the Rovers defence regular headaches. However the visitors were not anhiliated and the match remained goalless at half time. Rovers did go on to have their uses in the match but not only could they not hit the net it was pretty clear that they were the inferior team. The fact is though that despite going down to ten men with Steven Nzonzi being sent of, Rovers held firm. That leaves United still top of the Premiership, seven points ahead of nearest challengers Arsenal but with a game in hand. The Gunners appear to be falling apart.

North of the border, Aberdeen faced Motherwell at Fir Park in the SPL. Chris Humprey opened the scoring for Well and overall it was not the greatest of times for the Dons as they only got one shot on target before half time. Things picked up a bit for the Reds in the second half but they were unable to find the equaliser and instead looked to have finished the match off thanks to Shaun Hutchinson scoring their second. Vujadinovic pulled one back in the last seconds for his first goal for the Dons but it was too little too late. Needless to say, Craig Brown was not particularly happy about the Reds losing to his old team for the second match in a row.

Elsewhere, Motherwell lost 3-1 to Kilmarnock at Rugby Park. Well may have opened the scoring but Killie had turned the game around before half time and got a third goal early in the second half, that was pretty much that. Hamilton drew 0-0 with St Johnstone at New Douglas Park which was embarrassing enough for them but that was better than losing 3-1 to St Mirren at St Mirren Park despite opening the scoring before half time. That leaves Aberdeen 10th in the SPL, nine points behind Motherwell and the top half of the table and fifteen points ahead of Hamilton and relegation and they have a game in hand over both teams.

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