West Ham United 3-4 West Bromwich Albion
Played at the Boleyn Ground on Saturday 8th November 2003
West Ham United threw away a certain three points at home to West Bromwich Albion on Saturday, thus denying Alan Pardew his first victory. An unusually vocal crowd should by now have realised by now that West Ham are not good enough for promotion, yet!
It took just 41 seconds for Jermain Defoe to attack down the left flank and shoot from ten yards across the face of goal and saw the ball deflected into the net by an Albion defender.
A second was added eight minutes later when fantastic link-up play between Defoe and home debutant Brian Deane allowing Deane to slot home from outside the six-yard box.
Those hoping for a rout got even more optimistic as seventeen minutes later a brilliantly worked free kick meant that Deane nodded a backwards header into the net. Defensive critics, such as myself, would fault the man on the post for this goal, as his position meant that Deane and Matty Etherington could not be offside.
West Ham’s superiority turned into stupidity when Christian Dailly and Ian Pearce failed to tackle Rob Hulse, leaving David James to collect the ball. James was half-asleep and Hulse gave the visiting fans some hope.
Hulse soon added a second, Dailly failed to tackle him and he struck a sweet shot into the net. Things got worse for the Irons when Defoe got himself sent-off for a ridiculous two-footed lunge. What is even worse is that Pardew somehow defended him: “He was a bit unlucky to be sent-off.”
Twenty minutes later, the Baggies scored again. A left wing corner came swinging into the box into what should have been James’ territory. Instead, he stood nailed to his line, only to see Deane slice a clearance into the net, sending the West Brom fans into raptures.
The inevitable happened just over ten minutes later when the once-again-at-fault James came to punch a cross away, only to leave the ball on Lee Hughes’ foot for him to score and send the Baggies top.
By Phil Crook (p.crook@lycos.com)