BWFC v West Ham Saturday 9th December 2006
Well things are looking up. From 3rd, to 9th now back up to 5th - a point behind Liverpool and Pompey. I'm hoping that our seasonal bad patch is now well and truly behind us. If so we can press on for Europe! Sam should have won Sports Personality Of The Year in my book! And Nic got another! Plus it was Speedo's 500th Premiership game - more than anyone else! A good day all round.Bolton started brightly and it
was no surprise when Kevin Davies volleyed in from close range on 17
minutes following a lovely move that involved more passes than usual.
Bolton totally dominated the first half, with Speed looking as
industrious as ever and Campo supplying the passes from midfield.
Anelka, Diouf and Davies hit the ground running up front and the play
between the three of them was outstanding.
By the time the Davo scored his second on 52 minutes, the game was over.
West Ham huffed and puffed a little but to no avail. Teddy Sheringham
replaced the grotesque Tevez but looked a man in his forties playing a
number of years beyond his prime, unlike our Speedo.
On 77 minutes, Diouf walked past the whole of the West Ham defence and
prodded the ball past Robert Green. A minute later, Anelka latched on to
a lovely through ball from Speed and dinked the ball over the goalkeeper
and into the back of the net for his third of the season.
West Ham then effectively gave up. There was still time for Campo to hit
the post, Speedo to go off for his ovation, and Ricky Gardner to have a
run out. It's all good.
Big Sam was in festive mood. He said..............
'I'm absolutely delighted because we'd lost two games and we've found
goals difficult to come by.
'To get four today, with the front three all scoring, was terrific. It
wasn't as easy as it looked, West Ham put up a good fight.
'Our finishing was high quality and it's a big victory. Hopefully it
gives us the confidence to go on a run.'
Alan Pardew was not.
'Bolton were very very good, unfortunately we were the opposite. We were
very stretched at the back.
'We battled hard and tried to play - sometimes we overplayed. But,
having said that, this was a fair result.
'We are going to need some strong characters to bounce back after this
result - we are in a tight spot. As a team we were not good enough
today.'
This was a good display by the boys but an abject one for the Hammers
who must now be one of the hot favourites for relegation.
INFO
Bolton Wanderers: Jussi Jaaskelainen, Nicky Hunt, Abdoulaye Faye, Abdoulaye Meite, Henrik Pedersen, Kevin Nolan, Ivan Campo, Gary Speed (Ricardo Gardner), Kevin Davies (Ricardo Vaz-Te), Nicolas Anelka, El-Hadji Diouf Subs Not Used: Stelios Giannakopoulos, Ali Al-Habsi (GK)
West Ham United: Robert Green, Jonathan Spector (John Paintsil), James Collins, George McCartney, Paul Konchesky, Hayden Mullins, Nigel Reo-Coker, Christian Daillt, Matthew Etherington, Marlon Harewood, Carlos Tevez (Teddy Sheringham) Subs Not Used: Bobby Zamora, Yossi Benayoun, Roy Carroll (GK)
Referee: Howard Webb Attendance: 22,283
Booked: El-Hadji Diouf (Bolton) Ivan Campo (Bolton) Nigel Reo-Coker (West Ham) Matthew Etherington (West Ham)
Match report by the Editor (Most disappointing.....)
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