whu-au

We're Not Dead!!!

2008-04-01T20:11:00.001+10:00

Head on over to the WHU-AU Forums :-

http://whu-au.com

Brisbane Hammers: Sunderland vs West Ham Sat 29th March

2008-03-29T11:42:00.001+10:00

Sunderland vs West Ham
Saturday 29th March
1am Kick Off

Ok so things have not been too great I know but we're a loyal bunch so I'm expecting a big turnout at the end of this month for our away fixture against Sunderland.

The usual venue,

Pig n Whistle
123 Eagle St
Brisbane

Come on you rip roaring goal scoring hammers!

Adelaide Hammers vs Fulham 12th Jan

2008-01-08T21:25:00.000+10:00

West Ham v Fulham

Happy New Year to all Hammers Fans.

Ok guys we are going to go for our first meetup this year against Fulham on the 12th of January kickoff is at 1.25am,meeting at the usual place,The Strathmore Hotel (opposite casino).Both Kaye and myself will be there from about 10pm,lets get as many Hammers fans to this one as possible and get the New Year off to a flying start.

Could you please post in the forums http://whuau.freeforums.org/viewtopic.php?t=202&sid=e41245c981662885c1bf1fc2c18e137d if you think you will be able to make it to this one.

Cheers Paul
Adelaide Hammers

The Magic of the FA Cup!

2008-01-05T08:56:00.000+10:00

This is what it's all about. The passion of the FA Cup is like no other for me. As kid I remember the cup run that took us to the semi final in 1991 to be robbed by the ludicrous sending off of Tony Gale by the since maligned ref Keith Hackett. And of course nobody can forget the heart ache of 2 years ago as the clock hit 90 minutes the score board said 3-2 to the mighty hammers only for it all to come crushing down. That's as close as it gets but it leaves us all hungry for more and only reiterates the drama and passion of the FA Cup which is rivaled by no other competition in the world.

Today sees us attempt to get past the first stage of the competition as the premier league clubs enter the third round. The draw has not been particularly kind to us early doors with us drawing a home tie against the in form Manchester City, a club rejuvinated under the ex England boss Sven Goran Eriksson. The hammers form has been inconsistent this season although we have a very healthy 29 points on the table. It is pretty clear that we are going to have a mediocre season on the league front and will probably languish somewhere in midtable come the end of the season. So it makes it all the more important to give the fans something to get excited about via the FA Cup.

So I am going to go out on a limb and say we will nick this game 2-1 today but I also have a gut feel that it may go to a replay. I expect Curbs to go with the 4-5-1 system with Carlton COle as the lone striker again. Our midfield will be hard pushed to keep the likes of Elano and Petrov quiet and a five man midfield will seem quite attractive to curbs I'm sure.

Match Prediction: Reading Home

2007-12-26T11:59:00.001+10:00

West Ham Form: WDLWLW
Reading Form: LLDWDW

Venue: Upton Park
Capacity: 35640

Probable Hammers lineup: Green, Neill, Upson, Spector, McCartney, Solano, Ljungberg, Parker, Mullins, Cole, Ashton.

Prediction 3-1: I reckon after that good result at the weekend we'll be champing at the bit to get our home form going and we will over power an inferior Reading team for some much wanted xmas cheer.

Match Preview: Middlesboro Away

2007-12-21T09:02:00.000+10:00

Boro Form: DDLDWW
West Ham Form: DWDLWL

Venue: Riverside Stadium
Capacity: 34500

Probable Hammers lineup: Green, Neill, Upson, Collins, McCartney, Solano, Ljungberg, Parker, Mullins, LBM, Ashton.

Prediction 1-1: Unfortunately Boro have had a little bit of form recently and we could be a little fragile after the Everton debacle. Our Riverside form is not that great so draw at best for me.

Brisbane Hammers/Boro Xmas Bash Sat Dec 22nd

2007-12-17T12:11:00.000+10:00

Ok guys I've teed it up with the pig n whistle that we are gonna have a sit down xmas roast with the boro fans the night of our match 9pm.

Cost is 20 bucks per person and for your money you get a traditional roast turkey dinner.

I need an idea of numbers so please can you confirm your attendance on the following thread on the forums...

http://whuau.freeforums.org/viewtopic.php?t=82&sid=823c575f7cc1e4560cf81b1e962c395a

The match will be kicking off at 1am so plenty of time to get lubricated before the match. (no sexual jokes please)

Come on you Irons!

Chant of the week

2007-12-07T08:03:00.000+10:00

"You are our feeder club." - Tottenham fans to West Ham fans

"That's why you're going down." - West Ham fans' response

FA Cup 3rd Round Draw

2007-12-03T05:19:00.000+10:00

Man City at ours which is not the kindest marble that could have come out.

After our name came out there were 15 teams left in the hat including Chelsea, Newcastle & Portsmouth. But there was also Burton Albion, Bury & Barnet which would have been a whole lot nicer.

Here's hoping for a Dean Ashton winner like we had in 2006. I'm sure we can work something out to the tune of white christmas.

Full Draw (to be played Jan 5/6)

Preston v Scunthorpe
Port Vale/Chasetown v Cardiff
Colchester v Peterborough
Bolton v Sheffield United
Blackburn v Coventry
Brighton v Mansfield
Northampton/Walsall v Millwall
Charlton v West Brom
Watford v Crystal Palace
Luton/Nottingham Forest v Liverpool
Plymouth v Hull
Aston Villa v Manchester United
Tranmere v Hereford
T*tenham v Reading
Burnley v Arsenal
Bristol City v Middlesbrough
Fulham v Bristol Rovers
Huddersfield v Birmingham
Horsham/Swansea v Havant & Waterlooville
Sunderland v Wigan
Oxford/Southend v Dagenham & Redbridge
Everton v Oldham
Derby v Sheffield Wednesday
Southampton v Leicester
West Ham Utd v Manchester City
Ipswich v Portsmouth
Wolves v Cambridge
Barnsley v Blackpool
Chelsea v QPR
Stoke v Newcastle
Swindon v Burton Albion/Barnet
Norwich v Bury

Chelsea 1 - 0 West Ham

2007-12-02T10:20:00.000+10:00

Fucken unlucky! Joe was offside for me ('CAUSE HE WAS!) but sometimes you get them and sometimes you don't. But Joe did do well to split the defenders and get himself into a good position, to collect the ball, in the first place, his finish was also pretty good. But his celebration, what a cunt! No respect there for a club that he owes everything too. Always had a soft spot for Joe but he has now officially made the shit list!

Onto the game, what a gutsy performance from the lads, we were in their face big time. There's a real nasty streak in the team at the moment and I like it! We gave them nothing and worked our bollocks off, can't ask for anymore than that! For two teams that are supposed to be miles apart in quality, I thought there was very little difference. We were definitely worth a draw IMO. In fact I reckon that if we had just a bit more quality i.e. Tevez, I think we might have nicked this one.

I thought to a man all played well, gave everything and played to the best of their ability. The exception to this was Ethers, for me he is a one trick pony, and if that trick doesn't work he offers nothing else. Sorry Ethers fans and I know there's a few of you on here but he just isn't that good.

Anyway, don't want to be negative, overall was happy enough with the game. We are looking pretty solid. Never pleased with a loss but with effort like that I've no complaints and was very proud of the lads.

CURBS IN!

Match Prediction: Chelsea Away

2007-11-30T16:51:00.000+10:00

West Ham League Position: 10th
Chelsea League Position: 4th

West Ham recent form: LWDDWD
Chelsea recent form: WWWWDW

Probable (hopeful) West Ham Line up: Green, Neill, Upson, Gabbidon, McCartney, Etherington, Noble, Solano, Parker, Ashton, Cole

Prediction 1-3 : We'll be lucky to get anything from this. I'm holding out a ray of hope but we've found Chelsea very difficult to deal with in recent years. We used to always do well against them and maybe with their change of management we may find a chink in their armour. Don't hold your breath though - our slow defence may be over exposed in this encounter.

Brisbane Hammers vs Chelsea @ Pig n Whistle Sat 1st Dec

2007-11-28T12:34:00.000+10:00

Next Brisbane Hammers meeting will be on Saturday 1st December at the Pig n Whistle Eagle Street, 10:45pm kick off. Meet from about 9:30pm.

Big game this weekend so lets get everybody out for it and out sing the glory hunters.

Come on you Irons!

Pig n Whistle
123 Eagle St
Brisbane

Perth Hammers Chelsea -v- West Ham

2007-11-28T11:31:00.000+10:00

Chelsea -v- West Ham
Saturday December 1, 2007
9:45 pm kick off
Floreat Athena Football Club, Litis Stadium, Britannia Road, Mt Hawthorn

A real test. Obviously a tough game that we are not expected to get anything out of. However, we are due a result at the Bridge and a surprise might be on the cards here. We have nothing to lose in this game and it would be good to see us play like that with full committment.

As I say, both games will be shown regardless of numbers. This is good of Athena to do this for us. As always it's great chance to meet up with fellow Hammers and have a few beers and a chat.

Spurs Match Report

2007-11-26T11:06:00.000+10:00

Team - Green, McCartney, Gabbs, Upson, Neill, Matty, Mullins, Noble (Parker 63), Solano (Spector 82), Cole, LBM (Ashton 72). Subs Not Used Wright, Collins

For large parts of this game you could be mistaken for thinking that Spurs were the home team. In particular for at least the 1st half hour of the 2nd half and before we scored in the 1st half the Yids dominated the game.

Our goal came against the run of play when a blunder from Kaboul allowed LBM to do well and feed it through to Nobby who in turn slid it across goal to CFC who was completely unmarked. Good work by all three.

Keane blew a golden chance to equalise when put straight through on Green who did amazingly well to put him under pressure and Keane put his flick towards goal wide before any contact. Keane was infuriated not to get a penalty but a) he'd flicked it too far and was never gonna get it and b) he was offside in the first place. In any case the contact was no more than a brush across the chest with Green's trailing leg, so Keane can fuck off.

After the goal we were the better team for the remainder of the half and things looked rosy going in at half time.

Unfortunately we just weren't at the races for about half an hour after the break. We just looked ordinary.

Not singling him out but Lucas still worries me..when get's forward he turns it over too easily resulting in us being caught out and him having to scamper back (and he isn't that fast) or he gets sucked into centre back when Upson & Gabbs have it covered and leaves his side free for someone to glide in...we nearly conceded a goal for just that reason.

Their equaliser unfortunately was entirely down to Greeno...he didn't need to come but having done so he had to get there earlier and with authority...this was the sort of blue I had been dreaming of Robinson making but dream turned nightmare...

Their goal did polarise us into looking like we gave a fuck again.

Somebody (Beex?) needs to tell Curbs that Spector is not an impact player FFS.

Where the fuck was Freddie? He can captain his country mid-week but not get a look in for us...he would have been far more useful than Spector to try and find a winner...

Ashton as usual will take about 200 minutes of football to look sharp. He did force a good save out of Robinson.

Parker didn't really have an impact although he nearly found the bottom corner with a cool bit of composure on the edge of the box.

Georgie also forced a goal line clearance. Having not been that much chop for the 1st half hour we did have at least 3 clear cut chances to score a winner.

But like any good script there was still time for a twist. Was it a penalty? Not one you would normally see given..he did tug his shirt a touch and grapple with him a little but I'd have too say it was very harsh.

If anything can make up for missing all 3 points it would have to be little Judas missing a penalty in injury time...magic and just the tonic for all those hammers fans unfortunate enough to work with a yid or two..instead of copping it in the neck for not seeing it out we'll be heckling the sad cunts lol.

Given our depleted line up it would have been awesome to get away with 3 points but to be honest I don't think we played well enough to feel cheated.

Chelsea & Blackburn away next and neither will be a walk in the park...

Match Prediction: Spuds Home

2007-11-25T22:38:00.000+10:00

West Ham League Position: Top half
Spuds League Position: Bottom half

West Ham recent form: LLWDDW
Spuds recent form: DDLLDW

Probable (hopeful) West Ham Line up: Green, Neill, Upson, Gabbidon, Spector, Etherington, LBM, Solano, Ljungberg, Ashton, Cole

Prediction 2-2 : If Ashton is fit we could do well here but it's touch and go as to whether he'll play. Also Ljungberg needs to come back from Sweden unscathed. I think we could win it but I'm gonna play it safe and say a draw as Spurs will want to try and drag themselves up the league table. Our home form isn't as it should be either to date.

CANBERRA: West Ham United v Tottenham Hotspur 26 November

2007-11-25T12:42:00.000+10:00

Gonna have a big one coz the local Spurs club is coming down too. Unfortunately I can't make it (ironically in Brisbane at the time) but it should be good.

WEST HAM UTD V SPURS
26 NOVEMBER 2007 - 12.25am KICK OFF

DICKSON TRADIES Club,
2 Badham Street,
DICKSON ACT
PH: 6162 5656

If you are not a member, Page either Danny Brosnan or John Ilchef to sign you in.

Any problems, questions or more info please contact either Danny on mailto:dante_121@hotmail.com or call 6127 7203 or John on dante_121@hotmail.com

Sydney Hammers vs Sp*rs 25th November

2007-11-25T08:36:00.000+10:00

Tottenham 25 November

We are LIVE on Fox again on Sunday night 25 November however as its
Tottenham there is sure to be demand to see us turn over our small
northern neighbours!

SYDNEY OZ Hammers are meeting @ The Hakoah Club, 67 Hall Street,
Bondi Sunday night 25 November! (KO 12.30am Monday morning)

Spurs have a new manager and have finally won a game so some of the
pressure is off. The Hammers should have several long term injuries
back for this game so all the stars are aligning for an absolute classic!

Ozhammers have a new Web Site under development and hope to launch this
inside the next 4 weeks. This initiative will bring together the
Hammers supporters groups throughout Australia and offer membership
and a host of other benefits.

Forever blowing bubbles!!

Forum Launch!

2007-11-23T11:42:00.000+10:00

Okay so it’s no secret that we’ve been working on a launch of new forums since it has become apparent we’ve outgrown our current discussion format.

The blog is still to be the focal point of whu-au and as such will now be reachable from the domain www.whu-au.com although we will remain with blogspot so the existing address will still get you here.

The new forums are now live and will be an offshoot of this site via a link in the menu bar on the left (to be updated) or by following the link http://forum.whu-au.com/

We will still be posting the usual articles on here so be sure to navigate here on a regular basis. We will also link to pre & post match reports on here from the discussion board.

It has been noted during testing that the forums sometimes can run a little slow but we think this is just for a short period whilst our host backs up its server (was slow for a while this morning but seems back up to full throttle now). We will monitor this and look to make changes to our host if necessary but please be patient in the meantime if you experience any slow speeds.

I’d like to take the opportunity to thank everybody for their input to this site and hopefully we now have the platform in which we can continue to grow and share our thoughts on everything that is West Ham United FC.

Foreign players: whubris's 2 cents

2007-11-16T12:06:00.001+10:00

There's a lot of fuss about at the moment over a potential quota for foreign players in the English league. As I understand the argument, foreign players are coming in and taking the places of young English players. As a result the English players aren't getting enough game time, and so there aren't enough decent English players coming through.

If you ask me, that's all rubbish.

John Terry, Rio Ferdinand, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Joe Cole, Ashley Cole, Wayne Rooney, the list goes on. Not enough decent players? What a load of bollocks!

Foreign players often struggle when they come to the English league. People will tell you that it's because the English league is the best in the world. But the opposite is also true - how many England internationals play outside of England? How come successful English players keep going overseas, and failing? Steve McManaman, Michael Owen, Jonathan Woodgate and even David Beckham have all had failed or mediocre careers outside England. Owen Hargreaves is the only player I can think of who's been reasonably successful recently, but he's the exception.

And with so many good English players - who, after all, excel in supposedly the best league in the world - how come the English national team isn't successful?

The real problem - if you'll let me put aside the utter incompetence of Steve McLaren - is that the English league is too insular.

After years of inbreeding, the English football came has become so different to any other in the world that foreigners have trouble playing it, and English players can't play the same way elsewhere because it just doesn't work. The English players only know how to play against English or English-style opponents, and so they just can't play in other leagues and they can't compete in international matches.

Every time an English player faces a foreign opponent, he doesn't know what to do. He's just not used to any other style of play. It's got nothing to do with talent, and more about the way the talent is applied.

And most foreign players who are successful are either geniuses or are brought into the league very young, where they can learn the English game. Older and less talented (but still skilful) players don't succeed because they can't learn too many new tricks, no matter how good they were elsewhere.

As the problem continues, English players get less and less overseas experience, and foreigners are less and less able to influence the English game. And the more insular the English game gets. And the more the problem worsens.

Take Brazil for a prime example of a successful international team. Plenty of Brazilians in their own leagues, no doubt about that. But once talent is spotted, they're immediately whisked away to Europe somewhere, where they get the opportunity to learn foreign (to them) styles of play. The top clubs in most European countries are pretty multinational, so players get to come up against a whole raft of different opponents. Obviously there's more to Brazil's success than that, but there are more examples. Look at Argentina, or Spain, or France, or Germany, or Holland, or (to a lesser extent) Italy. All have great national teams, but their players also ply their trade outside their home country as well as in it. England seems to be the only country that keeps its players within its borders.

Since the English game is possibly the most lucrative in the world, and given its reputation (among the English at least) as being a top league, not to mention the kudos English players get from their own fans for staying in their home country - it's hardly a wonder they don't want to play anywhere else. Foreign players see the English league primarily as a good way to make some money, and by the way it's a decent league too. But they know that it's a tough league for foreigners to succeed in, so they're wary - and ask for higher wages. Then they play like shit and go back home a bit richer. Either that or they're exceptional (Zola, Henry, Cantona...) and succeed, but there's no accounting for genius.

It's not an easy problem to solve. Reducing wages will have the short term effect of a mass exodus of talent, and ironically would probably result in more English players in the English league. Limiting the number of foreign players in the English league of course won't cure the problem. Sure, clubs will invest more in their own academies, and English players will become better in the English game, but the players won't learn anything about foreign styles and the problem will continue or worsen.

Sir Alex Ferguson knows Manchester United have an exceptionally strong youth academy from which he can draw. No wonder he likes the idea of a foreign player limit - most of his players are English anyway and will continue to be for years.

Perhaps the solution is to send youngsters on loan to foreign clubs for a while. They'll get the experience they need and, if they're good enough, return to the English league and have a successful career.

Oh, while I'm on the subject of xenophobia - apply the above to coaches too. And sack Steve McLaren. I know the English hate the Dutch but if Australia can get the likes of Hiddink and (fingers crossed) Advocaat, then so can England. They did the right thing with Sven Goran Eriksson, but it just backfired (but who's to say that Sven just did the best he could with a bad hand? Look at what he's doing with Man City!) - don't put that one-off down to "all foreigners are shit". They shot themselves in the foot with Scolari and Hiddink. There's no reason why someone like Mourinho or Beenhakker couldn't manage England.

Rant over!

FFS! Ferdinand loses his shit

2007-11-13T06:19:00.000+10:00

This is getting silly now. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7091054.stm

OK maybe it was self defence, or whatever, since he's running around with a watch that would keep most of us in beans and toast for about 5 years.

But this is exactly the sort of crap that we don't need at a difficult time of the season leading into the transfer window. I'm getting pretty damn sick of wobbly-gob junior at the moment but we really need guys like him to perform for us - it's not like we've got a lot to choose from unless we just tie their frail, injured little bodies to the goalposts.

I'm not entirely sure what my point is here. Maybe I'm sick of all the off field antics that have gone on in the last couple of seasons and want West Ham to be a bloody football club again and not Eastenders.

West Ham smash Derby 5-0

2007-11-13T06:09:00.001+10:00

...or so I've heard.

Anyone want to do a match report?

Brisbane Hammers @ Pig n Whistle vs Derby Sat 10th Nov

2007-11-10T12:58:00.000+10:00

*** Sticky post please scroll down for recent articles ***

Next Brisbane Hammers meeting will be on Saturday 10th November at the Pig n Whistle Eagle Street, 1am kick off. Meet from about 11pm.

I'd like to say easy points but I don't think they will be. With our injury situation and Derby desperate for wins this could be a tough encounter.

So do your best to all come out and have a good sing song and a few beers whilst we cheer on the lads.

Come on you Irons!

Pig n Whistle
123 Eagle St
Brisbane

Adelaide Hammers vs Derby 10th Nov

2007-11-10T12:39:00.000+10:00

*** Sticky post please scroll down for recent articles ***

Calling all Adelaide Hammers for a get together for the Derby game. We are going to meet at the Strathmore Hotel (opposite casino),we will be there from about 10pm and hope that the Adelaide fans will come out and make there support known here in Adelaide.

Recent turnouts have been dissappointing so lets have a big turnout to cheer the hammers on to victory!

Match Preview: Derby County Away

2007-11-08T13:25:00.000+10:00

Thought I'd bring back the match prediction article that got abandoned mid way through last season through lack of enthusiasm due to such poor form.

Anyway here we go.....

Ground: Pride Park
Capacity: 33,597

West Ham League Position: 11th
Derby League Position: 20th

West Ham recent form: LLLWDD
Derby recent form: LDLDLL

Probable West Ham Line up: Green, Neill, Upson, Gabbidon, McCartney, Etherington, Mullins, Solano, Bowyer, LBM, Cole

Prediction 1-1 :Expect a hard fought encounter with Derby desperate for points and a Hammers team struggling to field a fit first 11.

A day out at the football

2007-11-08T09:09:00.000+10:00

In August of this year me and mine were in England visiting rellies. But I was able to drag myself away long enough to go to UP to watch the Wigan game. I took some pics of the day and thought I'd post 'em for those who may be missing a day out at the football.

I was really looking forward to seeing a live game. I hadn't been to UP since the stadium re-development. It was still terraces when I was there last and it cost me 8 squid, from memory, to watch a game from the north bank. You could just turn up at the ground and get your ticket an'all. Happy days!

A mate of mine is a season ticket holder so he was able to get me a ticket. 45 squid, fucknhell! Anyway, up bright'n' early, well not really, on holiday so I had a few Stella's the evening before and slept in. Fry up bekkie and a cup of tea or two. Why do English pork sausages taste infinitely better than the ones you get here? Bit of chat with the family, get ready, don last years home shirt and we are off.

For me Blackwall Tunnel means East End so when I saw it it brought a tear to my eye, sniff! Wasn't quick enough to get a pic so I stole one from the net, bit of cheating I know but fuck it.

This ones mine though!

First stop pie and mash, fuckin lovely! For those who have tried it, you know what I mean, for those who haven't, I pity you. 2 and 2 with liquor, beautiful! If I was on death row and I was asked what I wanted for my last meal, it would be pie & mash. We went to the shop below which is near the Crisp street markets in Poplar. The ones closer the ground, especially Nathans, are a nightmare to get in too, way too busy.

Back in the car to drive to the ground. Find a park, easier said than done, short walk down barking Road and hit the pubs. It was a stinking hot Summers day, yes they do have'em occasionally, so many were out drinking on the streets. Nice.

Quick shot of Bobby and the lads and it was into the Boleyn.

Pretty good atmosphere in the pub before the game but no pics I'm afraid. But I can assure you the boys were in good voice. Found this on youtube the same day I was in there to give you some idea.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0P2M3BG6NL4

After a couple in the Boleyn we went to the Central. Another swift pint then it was time to go into the ground. By this time I was feeling fuller than a school bus, 3 pints and the pie and mash was taking it's toll. But there was enough room to squeeze another pint in on the concourse in the ground.

Well impressed with the ground, but I do miss standing. We were in the DMU, as far back as you can get but still had a good view of the pitch.

You all know the result, it was a nervous crowd. Not much singing but the team gave them sod all to sing about. We dominated possession and opend them up quite a few times in the first half but I for one couldn't wait for the half time whistle, not because of the game but 'cause I was busting for a piss! It was the quietest crowd I had experienced at UP. Not sure if that's usual these days but I'd been to games before where we were losing but the crwod was still into it, strange really? But I must say that this game had a feeling about it, that Wigan were gonna knick it and they almost did had it not been for Bowyers equaliser.

I was happy enough not to see them lose tbh as that had happened to me the last time I went. Bloody long way to go to watch your team get beat!

After the game one more in the Central then the drive home listening to talkback radio about all the days results.

All in all a good day out. Hope you enjoyed the day as well.

Sobering Stuff

2007-11-08T08:25:00.000+10:00

http://www.physioroom.com/news/english_premier_league/epl_injury_table.php

Lucas Wants a Pay Rise..He's Kidding Right?

2007-11-08T05:27:00.001+10:00

Being widely reported that Lucas Neill wants a payrise since Scott Parker & Freddy have trumped his £60k a week wages by £15k. Its probably just tabloid mischief since the new regime have been tight lipped about wages etc.

But if it was somehow true then the only change I'd be agreeing to if I were the club would be a performance based one where he gets bonuses for clean sheets and forfeits £££ for howlers.

He might owe the club some cash on that basis after some of his earlier games this season...

West Ham reserves 1-1 Bolton

2007-11-06T18:45:00.000+10:00

Gutted! As Risky said, was not happy conceding so late. But as Dave's said, we've knicked our fair share of games lately so I guess we were due, maybe?

TBH Bolton scare the life out of me. With the exception of our last meeting, they always seem to have our measure. Regardless of where they are in the table at present, I expected them to be a bastard to play against and they were. Other than missing Anelka, Bolton on paper appeared to have a pretty strong side. As an aside, had to laugh when they showed the travelling supporters end, fuck me, there was more spare seats there than at a K-Fed gig!

Anyway, another patchwork side, you all know why, with the usual suspects at the back, any mid-fielder who could still kick a ball in the middle and Cole on his todd up front.

It was never going to be a classic but I thought we were OK considering. I couldn't fault our effort, which is all you can ask but we just didn't have enough quality on the pitch to really grab the game by the short and curlies. We played some good stuff in patches but individually the lads gave the ball away far too much. They did play like strangers at times but that's to be expected given the current circumstances.

Green flapped at a few crosses, giving me a heart attack in the process. If you come, you've got to get the ball. For the first time in a long time Green looked average.

Gabbs still looks well out of sorts to me. Upson and Lucas were ok but as usual Linda was the standout. The lad scores, goes forward, links up well, crosses, get's back, clears off the line, and leaps small buildings in a single bound! Our best on the day for me. At one point we lose the ball while in attack, he's out of position, as he's pushed forward, but you could see him yelling at Matty to get stuck in while he get's back into position. Matty did respond when yelled at but it wasn't his first instinct to pressure the man with the ball, Linda had to set him straight.

The midfield was all over the place. LBM had some flashes of brilliance but he also looked liked a retard at times. He was playing so out of position mind so I'll forgive him this time. Only saw Solano when we had a free kick or corner. He needs to get more involved. Bowyer ran his arse off and probably played as good as he can. Mullins was the pick for me and I'm not a huge Mullins fan but he knows his job and did it well on the day. IMO we looked a far lesser side when he went off. Matty was all over'em, he does look good when he's running at players. More off the same please Matthew. And Cole in the lone striker role was again a pain in the balls of the opposition. Really pleased to see the UP crowd give him a round of applause when he was subbed, if any player deserves it, it's him after all the shit he's had too put up with.

Another point should've been 3 but it wasn't to be. For me the most pleasing aspect of the team at the moment is the effort being displayed, we don't give up and even though we're not playing well we keep picking up points.

11th in the PL with a league Cup qtr final to come, after last years nightmare, I'm happy enough.

I should think Derby will be another scrap, but as long as the lads keep getting stuck in we're a show, what more can you ask ?

Hammers Scrape Through!

2007-10-31T08:46:00.001+10:00

The hammers came from behind against Coventry tonight in a fairly laclustre performance and had to concede before we even began to participate according to reports. But what's important is we are in the hat for the quarter finals after Carlton F Cole scored a 93rd minute winner after some good work from Boa Morte.

Now lets hope some big teams get knocked out and we get a reasonable home tie in the last 8.

KUMB cops it

2007-10-31T06:25:00.000+10:00

I'm sure most of the Aussie Hammers would agree that the venerable website KUMB has been the best website to get your Hammers news for some years now, especially since the media have practically starved us of news pretty much since we got relegated.

So now the noose tightens a little more since KUMB writers have been banned from official media activities including match day interviews - see this link.

To many Aussie fans, KUMB provides what BBC/SKY won't, and what WHU-AU can't - detailed, up to date and reasonably accurate news. KUMB serve the West Ham internet community at large, filling the gaps where the paid media services just aren't interested. BBC in particular have been very slack in providing updates.

Of course most commercial media outlets are either so "neutral" that they are dull as ditchwater, or sensationalise every tidbit - usually negatively - so that you have no idea what's going on. And the official site will try to put a positive spin on everything, even to the point of restricting what type of news they will print. KUMB provides the balance for that without flaying the club, manager, or players unnecessarily, and is pretty much the only source of good old honest and reliable opinions from genuine fans. There have been times when otherwise seemingly disastrous scandals were put to rest by the truth printed on KUMB! In particular KUMB was the only site that would print interviews in full without editing. This had the benefit of seeing what managers really said without the Sunday rag spin on things.

Where will we get all of that now?

Shame on you, West Ham United PLC.

Portsmouth v West Ham highlights

2007-10-30T18:00:00.000+10:00

SBS video highlights of Portsmouth v West Ham

Solano - On yer 'ead, son! Astonishing misses, but won't hold it against him.

Carlton Cole - Fantastic shot, as someone here said, he had absolutely no right to get that shot off but he nearly scored an absolute pearler, excellent!

Green - What an incredible goalkeeper! And I've said it before, but you gotta dig this dude's 'tude...

Fantasy League Update

2007-10-29T20:58:00.000+10:00

Table after gameweek 11

Congrats to Dickster for being the October Manager of the Month.

Honourable mention to "WHU Past & Present" who came 2nd despite having to cope with a self imposed rule of only picking players who have played for West Ham in some capacity.

Pos/Team/Manager/This Week/Grand Total

1 Ham West Graham Drummond 59 613
2 Brisbane Hammers Dave Rhodes 71 563
3 Rsk Hammers Richard Kemp 67 544
4 Gunnadoos Craig Baldwin 66 542
5 winning11 Joe Cobley 52 518
6 Mickys Oz Hammers Micky Palmer 44 518
7 Rapid Earlwood FC Nicholas Xanthis 50 511
8 Fleet Street Folex Folex 44 505
9 Boys from the Boleyn Stuart Robinson 63 501
10 Demons Blake Keough 66 499

October Manager of the Month Running Points

Pos/Team/Manager/This Week/Oct Total

1 Dicksters Devils richard bishop 74 227
2 WHU Past & Present Ben McEvoy 79 202
3 Rsk Hammers Richard Kemp 67 182
4 MarcoBoogersIsMad FC Mark Thomas 60 170
5 Demons Blake Keough 66 164
6 Brisbane Hammers Dave Rhodes 71 163
7 Mickys Oz Hammers Micky Palmer 44 161
8 Thames Ironworkers Kenton Presland 65 157
9 winning11 Joe Cobley 52 155
10 Noof Utd Josh Parsons 49 154

The Brisbane Hammers League is ranked 3,683rd out of 102,574 leagues.

Previous Manager's of the Month.

August - Dave Rhodes (Brisbane Hammers) 185 pts.
September - Graham Drummond (Ham West) 288 pts
October - Richard Bishop (Dickster's Devils) 227 pts

League details http://fantasy.premierleague.com/ Code is 187088-40824 League is called Brisbane Hammers but all whu-au readers welcome.

Bellamy Out!

2007-10-29T10:09:00.000+10:00

Craig Bellamy has been ruled out of Tuesday night's cup clash with his former club Coventry after limping off at half time vs Portsmouth at the weekend. He is troubled by the same injury that has blighted his season since it started and it is not known how long he'll be sidelined for but could be out for weeks.

So looks like it'll be Carlton & LBM up front for November.

West Ham 0-0 Portsmouth

2007-10-28T16:53:00.000+10:00

Well deserved point which could've and maybe should've been 3!

Firstly, how the Ref can award a penalty is a disgrace. It was ball to hand for sure and looked to be outside the box! Given that the game was effectively over, it was marginal as to whether Gabbs was in the box and it was unintentional, I find it woeful that any ref would give a penalty. There wasn't even much of a reaction from the Portsmouth players when the incident occured and everyone, including Portsmouth looked surprised. Terrible decision.

Robert Green, how goood is he! Saved us again, he is the man. Not only saved the penalty but made a couple of tasty saves early on. So glad he plays for us, world class.

CFC, will now be known as CC. I'm dropping the F 'cause he deserves it. Thought he had a great game, worked his arse off and was immense in the lone striker role. Had no right to get that shot off that hit the bar but he managed it. Well done my son. Oh and anyone who boo's him should have their arseholes removed, wankers!

Linda was also awesome. Week in week out he's consistent. Him and Green are the best we've got at the moment.

Good to see Lucas back in form and Upson did OK an'all but Gabbs, what are you doing son! He looks shakier than Mohammad Ali carrying a try of Waterford Crystal. He looks a shadow of the player that won Hammer of the year not so long ago. He's a real worry. Suspect Anton will be back at CB after that performance.

Bellamy needs to worry about his football more and stop muck'n about. FFS!

They bossed us around in the midfield, we had heaps of trouble passing the ball out of our own half without having to resort to a long ball. Unfortunately Noble and Mullins are not the answer, both look pretty average and may find it hard to hold down a regular place if we ever get enough players back. Honestly, sometimes you wouldn't know either of'em were on the pitch. To Anonymous for my liking.

Solano missed a couple of sitters. Not sure how he did it? Seemed harder to miss than score? Anyway, he and LBM did add some much needed width.

All in all, yet another patched up side managed to get something from a pretty good side. Well done Curbs and the lads.

Portsmouth Kick Off Time?

2007-10-25T20:41:00.000+10:00

So daylight saving is meant to start this Sunday at 2am at which time people in NSW, VIC, SA, ACT turn their clocks forward 1 hour. If that is the case how can Foxtel have our game scheduled for 2:15am - 4:30am?

As soon as it gets to 2am it magically becomes 3am doesn't it? 2:15 should never occur..

Daylight saving time in the UK doesn't start until 1am Sunday morning UK time so it won't have started when our game kicks off on Saturday arvo.

I'm down the coast for the weekend but I'm gonna drive home to watch the game then go back down again...

Does anyone understand this stuff....what time in QLD is our game actually on?

I'm down the coast for the weekend but I'm gonna drive home to watch the game then go back down again...

West Ham v Sunderland highlights

2007-10-22T19:53:00.000+10:00

Sorry for the lack of embedding but it's on the SBS video site

Must win game V Sunderland

2007-10-19T07:57:00.000+10:00

I know that all games are 'must win' really but this upcoming game against Sunderland is a massive one methinks. Will be very interesting to see what team Curbs puts out with all our injuries, looks like he will have to give some of the youngsters a run-out? If we lose, it's 4 on the trot (sorry for the reminder) with a difficult game at Pompey to come. However, a win would see us clawing back to the top half of the table and be a huge confidence booster. These games leading up to the Spuds clash are pivotal I think and will shape our season.

A Noble Performance!

2007-10-17T09:05:00.000+10:00

Mark Noble put in a match winning performance this morning for the England under 21s. The young hammer bagged a brace and almost got his Hatrick towardss the end as England easily disposed of Republic of Ireland by 3 goals to nil.

This is good news for West Ham as an in form Noble will be desperate to claim back his place in the starting line up against Sunderland this weekend and get the hammers back to winning ways.

1st Goal

2nd Goal

Our problems are over!

2007-10-11T07:31:00.000+10:00

Christian Dailly is on his way back from Southampton.
It's unclear whether he was not wanted anymore or we wanted him back.
If I know Curbs, Christian will be slotting into the attack with CFC for the Sunderland game.
God help us!

PS - To celebrate Christian 'Pele' Dailly's return, 'Curbs Out ' will be sending out free Dailly wigs with all new memberships ;-)

What's going on with Solano?

2007-10-10T09:30:00.000+10:00

I don't understand Curbs sometimes. Why sign a player then not even give him a place on the bench? We're hardly setting the league alight at the moment so he's got to be given a go soon. Dean Ashton is now ruled out for 6 to 8 weeks so we'll be lucky to see him before xmas - so I reckon Ljungberg could be used up front which would surely give a place in the side for Nobby?

Anyway here's Solano's latest take on it....

"I am not worried about that I haven't played any game yet at West Ham. I have a lot of experience in football," said Solano as he arrived in Peru ahead of their World Cup qualifier with Paraguay.

"It's true, I am not playing but I am calm about that.

"I don't forget that the championship has just started in England and I have a lot of experience in football and in the national team.

"I have even spoken with the coach of Peru and he told me to be calm."

2007-10-08T08:38:00.001+10:00

Aston Villa 1 West Ham 0

2007-10-07T16:22:00.000+10:00

BOLLOX!

Ashton Out!
Camara Out!

You know what I'm thinking but I ain't gonna say it ;-)

Positives
Freddie had his best game for us

Negatives
The injuries
Woefully slow at the back
Couldn't turn possession dominance into goals

Turning Points
CFC's misses

Getting a bit worried now

Brisbane Hammers - Live Meet Ups

2007-10-05T11:30:00.000+10:00

*** sticky post, scroll down for recent articles ***

Update - The Pig & Whistle have been in contact again and reiterated that some people's "attitudes need to change". They have video surveilance at both venues and use it, often, to monitor what goes on.

Dave & I have had a chat and we're both concerned with the way things are going for the Brisbane meet ups and think that things need to change.

1) singing is good but we need to be aware that we are not at a game where the 2 teams fans are separated by fences. Winding em up is ok but there is a line that shouldn't be crossed. The test should be 'is it good natured banter?'. If it isn't then it probably has no place in an open venue where we may be standing shoulder to shoulder with the opposing fans.

2) if we get a bit of banter back from the other team's fans our reaction should not be to get aggressive and personal. We *want* them to sing back at us and create a bit of atmosphere. That's a good thing.

3) If we're on the receiving end of something that isn't banter but is personal & aggressive & crosses the line, then we need to let the management know rather than take matters into our own hands. For the record I'm embarrassed that I lost my rag after the boro game, not proud of it.

Foxtel viewer's choice means there are fans from a lot of teams in the pub at the same time, some who have been drinking for hours already because they had the early game.We really need to tone things down a *lot* or we're gonna have issues at every single match we watch.

The Pig & Whistle have been incredibly patient but that patience is wearing very thin and indications are that they will take sanctions if things don't change.

We’d be foolish to think we could just go to another venue. Over the years we’ve had a very good relationship with the pig n whistle and they have been very accommodating such as last season’s UEFA cup games when they opened at 4:30am on weekdays. We’d like to think that our relationship is still strong and that we have enough respect to watch the games in a friendly atmosphere.

Super Tom - bless 'im!

2007-10-03T18:24:00.000+10:00

Here is a variation on the theme (very funny)

Here's another one, just for the memories...

Adelaide Hammers: Villa vs West Ham 6th October

2007-10-02T13:46:00.000+10:00

Message from Paul in Adelaide

The Adelaide Hammers will be meeting this Saturday night @ the Strathmore Hotel (opposite casino) North Tce meeting from 9pm.

Lets get a great turnout for this one as recent numbers have been a little dissapointing.

Come on you Irons!

I'm sick of this C*nt!

2007-10-02T07:40:00.000+10:00

Wenger is always airing his dirty washing in public! Why can't he just call Mark Noble and tell him what he thinks and give him the chance to explain his actions??

There's no way that Noble deliberately fouled Hleb and tried to injure him - Mark is a full blooded player that goes for every ball and he was late this time - so go fuck yourself in the Arsene! How dare you slag him in public - have the balls to pick up the phone rather than play the press - you media whore!

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has called for the Football Association to review their rules on retrospective punishment.

The Frenchman's plea follows Mark Noble's crunching challenge on Alex Hleb during the 1-0 victory at Upton Park.

Noble caught the Belarusian with a late sliding tackle and was yellow carded by referee Alan Wiley.

In his post-match interview Wenger branded the challenge as 'very nasty', and described Hleb's bruising as 'unbelievable'.

Having watched replays of the incident, The Gunners manager has now voiced his belief that Noble should have received a straight red for his offence.

Wenger, though, defended Wiley's decision not to dismiss the player, and explained that he feels the referee had a poor angle of the foul.

Because Wiley dealt with the incident during the game it cannot be changed retrospectively, and here is where Wenger's issue lies.

"I have seen it again and it was a straight red for Noble, without a doubt," he said.

Diminish the power

"I can understand the referee could not see it, because you could only see it well from one angle on television. That angle is really bad.

"I do not blame the referee because he could not see what happened. He saw it was a foul but he certainly did not notice how bad the foul was at the time.

"There is a case to charge some players after that because sometimes the referee cannot see.

"Only if the referee says he did not see how bad it was.

"The rule would be made not to diminish the power and the authority of the referee - but with the referee's help you could do it."

West Ham 0-1 Arse

2007-10-01T15:11:00.000+10:00

Thought we played ok against a very good side.

Couple of dusty decisions didn't go our way, Freddie was on side, 1-1, as was Ashton when he only had the keeper to beat and who knows what would have happened there? But the Ref and the other mice didn't see it our way. Anyway, you get that!

Thought we lacked width which limited our attacking options. Without wingers we had to try and pass in through a conjested midfield or belt it long to Ashton. Not really that effective and not that hard to defend against. We missed Ethers who must be injured, he wasn't even on the bench. And if that was the case I thought LBM should have played with Freddie on the RM, which I think is his preferred position anyway? I suspect Bowyer was being rewarded for his form lately so kept his spot?

Van leprosy's goal was a good'n, he really attacked the ball, Lucas was caught ball watching a bit but Lep's flew at the ball so fair play to him.

Green for me was MOTM, how he's not in the England squad is astounding!

Thought Gabbs looked ok when he came on and I'd prefer him and Upson as the CM pairing anyway. Anton scares me at times, way too casual for my liking.

What is the go with Parker. FFS!

Henri made a nuisance of himself but there didn't seem to be much understanding between him and Ashton. We need Bellend back ASAP! But to be fair the strikers need to recive a ball through on the ground once in awhile to give themselves a better chance on goal.

Bad miss by Ahston, should have buried that.

How is Linda? is it me or does he look the bollocks. Seems very calm and has been doing his job very well. Seems like he's made LB his own. Good luck to him, I thought he was the weakest link. Not so.

Knoble's tackle, oh dear, thought he was lucky to stay on the pitch.

Overall, I thought we should have got something out of the game.

Must get something against Villa, if we don't I'll start getting nervous!

Hammers vs Arsenal Sept 29 @ Indooroopilly Pig n Whistle..

2007-09-29T14:21:00.000+10:00

***Change of venue - well a change is as good as a holiday. ***
*** Sticky post please scroll down for recent articles ***

The Brisbane Hammers will be meeting at 10pm Saturday September 29th @ Indooroopilly Pig n Whistle for our biggest game of the season so far against London rivals Arsenal.

So why change the venue? Well it's actually for our good mate Micky. The Pig n Whistle have a contract clause that their ex workers can't return to the pub for a period of time so consequently Micky who recently resigned can not go to the Pig in Eagle St until October. Arj has kindly agreed to set us up in a room at Indooroopilly so Micky can attend the game and join in the fun.

This is a one off change and we will be back at our prefered venue of Eagle St from October onwards.

Pig n Whistle
Indooroopilly
Brisbane

Adelaide Hammers - Hammers vs Arsenal - New Venue!

2007-09-29T09:19:00.000+10:00

We have secured a new venue that will be showing Hammers games whenever they are on.We will be getting together for the Arsenal game on the 29th Sept at the Strathmore Hotel, North Terrace (opposite casino),will be there from 9.30pm, so as this is our first get together in our new venue would really like to see all the Adelaide Hammers attend to show the Strathmore that this is a beneficial decision.

Thanks from Paul,Adelaide Hammers

RoosRoosRoos

2007-09-27T16:20:00.000+10:00

Check out the September fanzine which is out now http://www.roosroosroos.com.au/ as it has a bit of a special on West Ham with an article by me about my first game and there is also a history page about West Ham.

Ashton Leaves It Late

2007-09-27T06:45:00.000+10:00

Deano scored the only goal of the match in the 90th minute against Plymouth Argyle. I couldn't even find audio commentary so I'll let the sporting life live update commentary describe it for you :-

"90' Fantastic goal by Dean Ashton (West Ham) volleyed right-footed (bottom-left of goal) from right side of penalty area (18 yards).West Ham 1-0 Plymouth. Assist (cross) by Kyel Reid (West Ham) from left wing."

Parker played well apparently.

Team - Wright, Neill, Collins, Gabbs, McCartney, Ljungberg (Bowyer 74), Parker (Noble 88), Mullins, LBM, Ashton, Cole (Reid 63)

Mancs lost 0-2 to Coventry at Old Trafford! Villa lost to 0-1 to Leicester. (NRC & Marlon both started)

Resemblance? IV

2007-09-23T13:19:00.000+10:00

Eggy To Step Back

2007-09-19T07:21:00.000+10:00

Been getting reported overnight that Eggy will step back from being the executive chairmean and remain as a non-executive chairman.

The real bank role behind the take over, Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson, will take a more hands on role.

To learn more about BG, this article from a couple of weeks ago is a good read.

Kristjan, an Icelandic member of the yahoo West Ham list posted some comments from Eggie on an Icelandic news site :-

"Scott Duxbury will be taking over the daily running of the club fromEggert.

"When we took over the club last year, it was never my intention totake care of the daily running of the club, 24 hours a day. However,I took that on to begin with. A lot has been going on in recentmonths but we thought this was the right time for us to make thesechanges. In fact I needed some time to breathe. I have been verybusy and now I can concentrate on other things relating to the futurevision of the club."

It adds that Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson, the owner of West Ham will bemore involved in the work of the club in the future."

Fantasy League Smack Talk Thread

2007-09-18T20:48:00.000+10:00

Table after gameweek 6

#/Team/Manager/This Week Grand Total
1 Ham West Graham Drummond 86 342
2 Gunnadoos Craig Baldwin 71 305
3 Brisbane Hammers Dave Rhodes 74 304
4 winning11 Joe Cobley 38 290
5 Rsk Hammers Richard Kemp 74 278
6 Tevez's Triumph Michael Pannunzio 51 270
7 Boys from the Boleyn Stuart Robinson 66 269
8 Rapid Earlwood FC Nicholas Xanthis 62 268
9 Fleet Street Folex Folex 77 262
10 Mickys Oz Hammers Micky Palmer 51 257

September Manager of the Month Running Points

#/Team/Manager/This Week/Sept Total
1 Ham West Graham Drummond 86 164
2 Gunnadoos Craig Baldwin 71 131
3 Rsk Hammers Richard Kemp 74 125
4 Rapid Earlwood FC Nicholas Xanthis 62 123
5 Brisbane Hammers Dave Rhodes 74 119
6 Boys from the Boleyn Stuart Robinson 66 116
7 Tevez's Triumph Michael Pannunzio 51 114
8 Fleet Street Folex Folex 77 114
9 Masters XI Fred Masters 65 111
10 winning11 Joe Cobley 38 110

The Brisbane Hammers League is ranked 275th out of 86,680 leagues.!!!

Previous Manager's of the Month.

August was Dave with 185 pts.

League details
http://fantasy.premierleague.com/
Code is 187088-40824
League is called Brisbane Hammers but all whu-au readers welcome.

40,000 Hits!

2007-09-17T08:46:00.000+10:00

Another Milestone. :-)

Thanks for everybody's support.

Hammers vs Boro @ the Pig n Whistle 15/09/07

2007-09-15T09:07:00.000+10:00

***Sticky post - please scroll down for more recent articles***

Saturday 15th September

West Ham vs Boro live @ the Pig n Whistle midnight kick off

The Brisbane Hammers will be out in force @ the Pig n Whistle once again - usual 10pm meeting time. The Brisbane Boro have a great contingent and I'm looking forward to catching up with likes of Teeside Trev & Littlelol.

Be there or be square!

Despite a glut of injuries to our midfield, we've had a reasonable start to the campaign thanks to our away form after a false start at home against Man City. So here's hoping we continue our good run and get our home season off to a start.

Pig n Whistle
123 Eagle St
Brisbane

Map with track directions from Central Station... (click to enlarge)

Ringo has a scuffle

2007-09-14T06:27:00.000+10:00

c+p BBC

N Ireland players brawl on plane

Northern Ireland stars Keith Gillespie and George McCartney were involved in a fight on an aeroplane before it flew the team from Iceland to London.

The incident came after a verbal exchange and punches were thrown before other players were forced to intervene.

IFA chief executive Howard Wells told BBC Radio 5live: "As I understand it there was an altercation, so we need to look into it and establish the facts.

"When we know what happened we'll take whatever action we deem appropriate."

Cabin crew reported the altercation to Northern Ireland manager Nigel Worthington before the flight took off.

Wells added: "The manager didn't see exactly what happened because I think it happened before he got on the plane, but we've spoken and we'll do what we need to do.

"I'm not totally in the dark as to what happened, but everyone has the right to state their case and express their opinion.

"I will be the first to admit this isn't helpful. It doesn't help the image of the IFA and it doesn't help the image of the game, but we are where we are and we have to deal with it."

Bellamy scores two

2007-09-13T15:44:00.000+10:00

The mans in form. Gets two and was a right handful by all accounts. Toshack couldn't say enough good things about him. Hopefully Deano can get on the board soon as well.

Bellamy and Ashton the new Cottee and Mcavennie? Too early to tell at this stage but how good would that be!

Ashton Dropped to the Reserves - Off in January..

2007-09-05T15:05:00.000+10:00

Curbs has demoted Ashton to the reserves and indications are he is now surplus to requirements with Carlton Cole & now Camara on the books. Liverpool have expressed an interest in a cut price 4m deal in the January window.

"Dean Ashton is included in a strong reserve squad which plays Readingtonight. The striker is making the most of the international break to getsome more match action under his belt. He is joined by fellow first-teamplayers, Jimmy Walker, Luis Boa-Morte, Carlton Cole, John Pantsil andChristian Dailly, who makes his way back from injury, after suffering afractured foot.

Kevin Keen's squad to face Reading, at Aldershot FC'sRecreation Ground, tonight is from:Walker, Blackmore, Pantsil, Dailly, Miller, N'Gala, Boa-Morte, Stokes,Collison, Reid, Cole, Hines, Jeffrey, Hales, Stanislas, Ashton, Sears,Blackwell.Kick-off is 7pm."

****For those of you who are a little slow on the uptake - yes it's a wind up - Deano is not going anywhere****

Shit Ground No Beer

2007-09-02T07:35:00.000+10:00

Great Result, 3-0 away with 2 to Matty and 1 to Bellamy...all quality goals.

Due to unjuries we had a bit of a make-do midfield that included none of the new signings....bowyer, mullins, noble, matty but they were superb and as Risky said we could have had 10.

Before the game Reading sent a letter to the club saying that no standing would be strictly enforced and due to our behaviour in that regard last year, no beer would be available to away fans. I laughed out loud when I heard the fans singing 'Shit Ground, No Beer'.

Bellamy's pace gives us so many opportunities that we have not had in recent times.

Matty is really starting to grow in confidence and who's to say it is not competition for his spot that has caused his dramatic improvement? His two goals were top shelf and he could have had more.

Ashton started but looked a little off the pace, more so than against Wigan last week. But it is time under his belt that was badly needed.

I thought Carlton Cole was quite lively when he came on. Let's not forget he hasn't had much match time either...

Green's penalty save was class. To be honest he should have had a 2nd booking for the challenge and not even been there to save it but luck's a fortune. He was clearly not 100% towards the end and I think Curbs should have subbed him to be safe.

Green, McCartney, Anton, Upson, Neill, Matty, Mullins, Noble, Bowyer (Spector 81), Bellamy (LBM 90), Ashton (Cole 64). Subs Not used Wright, Gabbidon.

7 points from 12 (7 from out last 9) is a good return given the injury situation (some might say crisis!)

We now have a fortnight to work on the walking wounded...Parker should be back and both Green & Bellamy will certainly appreciate the break.

Sheffield United went down to scunthorpe, rotflmao.

Carling Cup 3rd Round Draw

2007-09-01T21:43:00.000+10:00

home to Plymouth

full draw :-

Blackburn v Birmingham
Reading v Liverpool
Manchester United v Coventry
Tottenham v Middlesbrough
Hull v Chelsea
Blackpool v Southend
West Ham v Plymouth
Arsenal v Newcastle
Luton v Charlton
Manchester City v Norwich
Sheffield United v Morecambe
Sheffield Wednesday v Everton
Fulham v Bolton
Burnley v Portsmouth
Aston Villa v Nottingham
Forest or Leicester
West Brom v Cardiff

Ties to be played week commencing 24 September

Solano on free and Camara on loan....and err that's it?

2007-09-01T09:05:00.001+10:00

The transfer window has just ended and it looks like we've only signed Nobby Solano on a free and Henri Camara on loan from Wigan. Neither in time for the Reading game.
Strap yerselves in folks, this is gonna be a very tough season methinks?

Solano The Only One

2007-09-01T09:05:00.000+10:00

Newcastle agreed to transfer Solano to us with 15 mins to spare before the midnight deadline. He comes on a free..if he's out of contract why was the deal so problematic?

All the other deals fell through including Shorey, Barnes & Adri-fucking-ano. I've seen it rsaid that Shorey went to Fulham in a player exchange but I can't find confirmation and can't be assed looking.

I can't find any jaw dropping transfer elsewhere. Glen Johnson went to Pompey along with Diop. Derby signed one of Celtic's strikers Kenny Miller (might be a cheap fantasy football player as he'll get 1st team football every week presumably).

Bits & Bobs

2007-08-31T09:27:00.000+10:00

My attempt at the year's gayest post title....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kyel Reid scored a screamer for the reserves as they went down to Villa. The team also featured John Paintsal and Jimmy Walker.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Apparently Yossi & Masher were both impressive for the scouse against Toulouse

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

McCartney limped off with a calf injury against Bristol Rovers the other day but hopes to be right to play at Reading. Scott Parker also hopes to be involved after ruling himself out of a comeback last week after a training set back. Dyer was to set to pull off a shock return until a scan revealed he has abnormal physiology with a *2nd* bone in his lower leg :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We've been linked with Joe Cole after he had a bust up with Mourinho, bs factor approx 9. We still hope to do deals with Barnes & Shorey with Mullins now offered to Reading to sweeten that deal. Reading may even agree to a loan deal.

Adriano deal looks to have died (cue Dave's told ya so).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Anelka has signed a new deal with Bolton.

No Reading Coverage at Pig n Whistle this week

2007-08-29T13:00:00.000+10:00

Just a note to let you guys know that the Pig n Whistle will not be showing the Reading game this weekend due to functions for Riverfire. We will meet up again at the pig for West Ham vs Middlesborough 15th September.

Also if anybody is interested England's game vs Israel will be shown at the pig on Evening Sept 8th/morning 9th kick off 2 am.

Club Confirm Talks With Adri-fucking-ano

2007-08-29T11:06:00.000+10:00

Update...from The Independent

West Ham ready to take gamble with £15m Adriano

"West Ham officials were in Milan last night to negotiate the permanent signing of the Brazilian striker Adriano in what could turn out to be the most surprising deal of the summer transfer window.

Talks initially started over a season-long loan for the 25-year-old, who is out-of-favour at Internazionale. However, both he and the Italian champions have made it clear they would prefer a permanent transfer and West Ham have been encouraged to push ahead, although they face competition from Lazio.

The striker's £80,000-a-week wage demands are not regarded as a problem by West Ham, although they were still trying to agree a fee last night, with Inter hoping to receive more than £15m for a player who has fallen dramatically down the pecking order.

West Ham have also lodged a formal £5m bid for England international left-back Nicky Shorey and are hoping to hear later today whether it has been accepted. However, Reading are continuing to indicate they will not sell until they have signed a replacement – even though Shorey has pleaded with them to let him leave and will not sign a new contract."

-----------------

http://www.whufc.com/articles/article.php?page_id=9430

"Following speculation in the press West Ham can confirm we are holding talks with Inter Milan over striker Adriano.

The figures that have been quoted in the media are inaccurate as the possible deal is in it's early stages and money has not yet been discussed. The club are investigating the possibiity of a loan deal at this stage."

Dyer Broken Leg, No Deano

2007-08-29T05:02:00.000+10:00

All over 2-1 but not exactly convincing.

-----------

Bristol have pulled one back with 20 mins to go :(

-----------

2-0 up, Bellamy again on the stroke of half tme. Another great finish. Neill involved.

-----------

Update, Bellamy just smashed in a cracker. 1 nil up.

Lineup: Wright, Neill, Gabbidon, Ferdinand, McCartney, Dyer, Mullins, Bowyer, Boa Morte, Bellamy, Zamora. Subs Green, Etherington, Cole, Noble, Collins. Noble replaced Dyer after his injury.

-----------

Listening to a radio stream and 20 mins in we are under the kosh from Bristol Rovers.

Dyer is suspected to have broken 2 bones in his lower leg and has been taken straight to hospital. Tackle looked innocuous apparently. Fuck me we have some injuries, especially to new players after join us. No wonder we have trouble attracting players. God must be a yid ;-)

In terms of Deano, snipped from the match thread on KUMB

"DEAN Ashton who was expected to start in West Ham's Carling Cup tie at Bristol Rovers tonight, has had to pull out of the match, after his partner went into labour with the couple's first child earlier today. The striker did not travel with his team-mates to the Memorial Ground after it was clear that the newest member of the Ashton family was set to make an appearance and manager Alan Curbishley allowed Dean to stay behind with his partner instead. Dean will be back in the squad for the Hammers' trip to Reading in the Barclays Premier League on Saturday."

Deano to Start Cup Match?

2007-08-27T13:27:00.000+10:00

Reports are suggesting that Dean Ashton will get his first start of the season in tomorrow night's league cup match away to Bristol Rovers. Hopefully he will get himself on the scoresheet and make Curbs realise that he should be starting in the League vs Reading on Saturday.

Good luck Deano.

West Ham 1 Wigan 1

2007-08-26T08:16:00.000+10:00

We probably deserved more than a point given our weight of possession but at the end of the day you have to convert it to goals.

In terms of team selection the only change from last game was Neill in for Spector. I am really starting to get pissed off that Alan2 continues to prefer Zamora to Ashton. Bobby, while lively today, squandered chances. His first shot went out for a throw in, he totally fluffed a chance at the far post and failed to turn possession inside the box into shots.

We dominated the 1st half and perhaps should have had a penalty when Noble was held back in the area...it may have been given but after being held back Noble tried to make certain of it and went to ground theatrically which may have turned the ref off.

Bellamy, Dyer & Matty were generally giving their back four nightmares and you just knew we would rue going in at half time still on level terms.

After the break Wigan to their credit sorted their marking at the back out and neither Matty or Dyer showed anything like the threat of the 1st half. The half was pretty 50/50. Eventually on the hour AC caved in to the crowds Deano chants (Ashton that is, not Brishammer McGrath who isn't exactly match fit) and he replaced Zammo. Ashton looked good in his half hour, its amazing how he always gets his head on to balls pumped in high and he does a great job of using his body till he finds someone in space.

Curbs then made a straight swap Bowyer for Mullins and a little later LBM for Bellamy. Both of these were proved to be inspired substitutions with both involved in some promising chances. However Wigan went ahead on 78 mins thanks to a freakish Sharner overhead..at least if we had to concede it was to someone in my fantasy team ;-) .

We responded well and it was only 3 minutes before LBM put through a great little ball that Bowyer finished well into the far corner.

Despite going after a winner it wasn't to be and we had to settle for a point.

I have to say that Wigan made us look good in the 1st half as they were dreadful and we have work to do if we are to trouble quality teams.

Green 7 - not a great deal to do but made a great save in the 2nd half.
McCartney 8 - impressed me and had a couple of shots that belied the fact he has never scored.
Upson 6 - he certainly ain't quick but did just enough
Anton 6 - didn't have to do a great deal
Neill 5 - poor. Gave it away several times and looked like he needs time to get back in the groove.
Matty 7 - starting to get back to his best. His confidence is up.
Mullins 6 - run of the mill Mullins
Noble 7 -lively but not as effective as his motm display last game.
Dyer 8 - scary quick, particularly in the 1st half.
Bellamy 8 - ditto, he will score goals this year and win plenty of pens.
Bobby 6 - effort was ok but finishing was shite.

Ashton 7 - must start now!!
Bowyer 7 - good value and probed away dangerously. Took his goal very well.
LBM 7 - finished last season well and this was also encouraging

Brisbane Hammers vs Wigan @ Pig & Whistle

2007-08-24T12:20:00.000+10:00

Dave talked to Arj who confirmed they will have our game on at the Pig, however the audio will be turned down for the 1st half due to existing function committments.

If you plan on being there this Sat vs Wigan, let us know in a comment to this thread.

The next official meet ups will be vs Boro Sept 15th & vs Arsenal Sep 29th.

Derby Accept £7m For Giles Barnes?

2007-08-22T07:43:00.000+10:00

No official word yet but it would appear that Derby have accepted our bid of
£7m for midfielder Giles Barnes. He is young (19) and pacey and from what I saw of him last season he is quality and a good pick up. I have heard somewhere he was currently injured.

We do seem to be amassing a stack of midfielders...Parker, Noble, Dyer, Ljungberg, LBM, Matty, Bowyer, Mullins, Quashie and now Barnes.

What we need is fullbacks or at least cover. Neill & Spector on the right but only McCartney on the left. We need a left back sharpish, and there are also plenty who think Spector isn't up to it.

Only a week and a half until the transfer window closes, one left back and one striker please.

One Nil To The Cockney Boys

2007-08-19T17:06:00.000+10:00

We opened our account for the season with a 1-0 win away to Birmingham thanks to a Mark Noble penalty. It could easily have been more and certainly should have been 2 with on debut Dyer not putting away a gilt edged chance in the last few minutes.

Our line-up was Green, McCartney, Ferdinand, Upson, Spector, Etherington, Noble, Mullins, Dyer, Zamora, Bellamy. When Gabbidon came on for Spector later on it gave us an all British line-up.

I won't give full ratings but I thought Noble was superb. Mullins & Upson were both guilty of turning it over at times. As was Dyer tho he was quite lively on debut. Green was super safe when called upon.

Somehow the fantasy league bonus 3-2-1 votes went to Ridgewell , O'Connor (what an ugly bogan he is) and all we managed to sneak in was Green for 1 pt. If Noble wasn't best on ground, I'm not here!

The penalty to me looked clear cut. Bellamy got a touch of the ball, the keeper didn't and brought Bellamy down. Doesn't matter where in the box it occurred, that's a penalty all day long. We are now a team with loads of speed and I'm sure this won't be our last penalty for the season.

During the interviews afterwards, Bruce did nothing but complain. He bitched and moaned about the penalty. He bitched and moaned about us not playing during the week when they had to. Tosser.

Seperated at Birth?

In other news ex-hammer Jeroen Boere has found dead in his house in Spain overnight. Cause of death not yet known.

Brum vs West Ham this Saturday (Brisbane Hammers)

2007-08-18T10:07:00.000+10:00

With Foxsports active it seems that almost every game is going to be available live for us to watch. I don't think it is realistic that we have official meets every week as many of us have families & finances to juggle.

As such I think our next official Brisbane Hammers game should be vs Boro on September 15th & then Arsenal on 29th.

However I encourage you to go along to the pig n whistle and watch the games if you wish to - you are more than welcome to go along this weekend and watch the Birmingham game. If you are going to be there for either the Brum or Wigan games feel free to let people know in the comments of this thread.

As most of you know a few of us (including myself) danced on the line with regards to the pig n whistle's hospitality last weekend. As far as I'm concerned the business with the Spurs fans should end here and we should put the whole thing down to a bit of excitement & over exuberance from both parties with new season getting underway and a few of us (again from both parties including myself) drinking more than we should.

Having spoken to the manager there are a couple of things they are not happy with that are a threat to future attendances. It has been identified that one or two people persistently spit in the pub. The pub management know who you are (they have it on video), you know who you are and if it continues the pub will ban individuals concerned. Please refrain from spitting in the pub grounds - I have been told there will be zero tolerance on this matter and if it happens again just once it will result in a ban.

Dyer deal done?

2007-08-16T12:32:00.000+10:00

Apparently this is back on after a fee was agreed late last night for 7M.

Alot of money yes but could prove a good signing if he stays injury free. We definately need fresh faces so it's a welcome one for me.

Who asked micky to play for his church league side?

2007-08-16T12:30:00.000+10:00

Someone on Saturday asked Micky to play in their football team but he doesn't know their name. Micky says he is available this week so please could you email him on palmerinoz@iinet.net.au to tee this up.

West Ham 0-2 Man City

2007-08-12T02:10:00.001+10:00

We're off to a disappointing start to the season thanks to a couple of goals from Man City new boys. Despite plenty of possession and some flair West Ham could just not create any decent chances - every time a good move was on something would happen to intervene. Still, some positives to take from the game.

Player ratings (these might be out of whack because I haven't seen any kind of game for a few months!)

Green 5 - It pains me to say it but he was pretty ordinary. Couldn't have done too much more about the goals but just unconvincing throughout.
Ringo 6 - Awful start but put in a very respectable performance once he got into the game. Some good work with his teammates.
Upson 6 - Horrible, and costly error for the first goal but other than that I thought he did pretty well.
Ferdinand 5 - Prone to the odd mistake. Didn't look like he cared too much.
Spector 6 - Good, but lacked control. Tired towards the end.
LBM 6 - Promising. I hadn't expected much but he did all right down the left and put in the odd strong tackle.
Noble 8 - Excellent performance, hard working, some really classy passes and footwork. I've had a look at a couple of player ratings sites and he's not getting any decent ratings - maybe I was watching a different game but I thought he was very good.
Freddie Mercury 6 - We had high hopes and he didn't disappoint. Room for improvement, knowing what he can do, but some good signs. Glad he's with us.
Bowyer 5 - No impact.
Zamora 6 - A frustrating game for the angry young man. Plenty of ball but always seemed to make the wrong decision, misplace a pass, or get caught offside. Wasn't helped by somewhat picky linesmen and ref.
Bellamy 6 - Showed what he can do at times but drifted aimlessly.

Mullins 6 - Adequate.
Etherington 7 - Threatening.
Ashton 6 - Clearly rusty, and has had a visit to Advanced Hair I think because his crown seems to be a lot less shiny. High hopes for him this season though.

Curbs 6 - We needed somebody in the box who can head a ball, which is where Ashton might have come in handy from the start, with Zamora used as an impact player which I think is best for him. Kind of pointless substitution with Mullins as it brought Ljungberg out of the game and put more pressure on Spector, who was getting tired.

West Ham vs Man City Live on Foxtel - Brisbane Hammers to the Pig n Whistle once again!

2007-08-11T23:48:00.000+10:00

***Sticky post - please scroll down for more recent articles***

Our opening fixture of the 2007/08 season at home to Man City 11th August is live on Fox Sports - midnight kick off EST.

The Brisbane Hammers will be out in force @ the Pig n Whistle as they were for our run in last season - usual 10pm meeting time.

Be there or be square!

There will I'm sure be comings and goings in the West Ham squad between now & then but hopefully this will not deter our preparations for the big kick off. It is imperative we get off to a good start and avoid the struggles of last season.

Pig n Whistle
123 Eagle St
Brisbane

Canberra Hammers @ The City Club

2007-08-11T23:01:00.000+10:00

Posted on behalf of Danny. I'll be there and a few others should be showing up too.

CANBERRA HAMMERS

WHU v Man City - 11 Aug 07
11.45 pm kick off

Match Live at "The City Club"
Lower Level, Garema centre
Garema Place, Civic
Ph. 6248 8917

Page 'Danny Brosnan' at reception and I will sign you in.

Any probs or questions please Call Danny Brosnan on (02)6127 7203 at work or 0416 053135 after hours or Email at Work: daniel.brosnan@defence.gov.au

hope to see you there....

C'MON U IRONS !!!

dB

Perth Hammers - West Ham -v- Manchester City

2007-08-11T09:46:00.000+10:00

West Ham -v- Manchester City

Saturday August 11, 2007
10 pm kick off

Floreat Athena Football Club, Litis Stadium, Britannia Road, Mt Hawthorn. Free admission - families welcome. {Game will start straight after Sunderland-v-Spurs [7:45pm]}

Adelaide Hammers @ The Rosemont Hotel

2007-08-11T07:14:00.000+10:00

msg from Westham5096 (Paul)

we here in Adelaide would like to get together at the Rosemont Hotel in Hindley St, for the first game against Man City. We will be there from about 9pm onwards and would really like to see all the crowd that we had for the end of last season attend so we can get things up and running for the new season.

Thanks from Paul and Kaye here in Adelaide.

Every game live on Foxtel

2007-08-10T16:09:00.000+10:00

I can confirm that as of tomorrow foxsports active will allow you to watch any 3pm kickoff game by pressing the red button and selecting which match you want to watch. Tomorrow there is a choice of 5 live games.

This is awesome! So we will now have every hammers match live in Australia!

Neill & Parker - Update

2007-08-08T08:52:00.000+10:00

"Lucas unfortunately twisted his knee when blocking a shot in training, and at first we feared that he may have suffered significant damage to his medial ligament," head of physiotherapy George Cooper told the club's official website.

"However, the scan results are far better than predicted and show that there is more damage to the muscles around the knee than the actual medial ligament itself, which has actually sustained only very, very minor damage.

"He has already made fantastic progress since sustaining the injury and will definitely be back in action inside a month.

"He is now working hard alongside Scotty Parker, who is also making excellent progress from his knee injury, and the two of them are really pushing each other, so I'm certain we will see them back in action very soon."

FOXTEL INTERACTIVE (Choose your Live game) coming soon to OZ???

2007-08-07T13:51:00.000+10:00

A guy on West Ham Online (johnyoz) has stated that FOXTEL are soon going to announce the facility to choose which Saturday 3pm kick off game you want to watch via the interactive feature like they do for Rugby currently.

This would be awesome if true - we'll be able to watch every single hammers game live. Watch this space. :-)

Fat Sam: Dickhead Extraordinaire

2007-08-06T18:30:00.000+10:00

So Sam Allardyce has been flapping that enormous gob of his again, and strike me pink if it isn't another load of wank.

"In the end we decided he was under-valued and escalated it and West Ham didn't want to roll with us over what we thought was realistic. So he is back with us - a top player with a squad that is growing. It's life isn't it? He has got a contract. You can go back and get on with it. It is not a hard life is it? It is pressurised, but it is not a hard life. He will come back and do his best and go forward. If anything happens in terms of West Ham increasing their offer then great, but if they don't, they clearly don't value him as highly as we do. They're not as upset as we are with West Ham. That is private and confidential, but if Curbs started it then we are more upset than they are and that is a fact."

Schwarzer in Brisbane Hammers Hat! The elusive photo!

2007-08-06T13:32:00.000+10:00

Finally I found a photo of Mark Schwarzer with that Brisbane Hammers hat I put on his head at the pig n whistle. I got it off the book launch official photographer's site (hence the watermark). Anyway was good for a laugh - he took it well! :-)

Hammers 2 - 1 Roma

2007-08-06T09:48:00.000+10:00

Yes you did read it right - unless you read it that we lost cos we didn't we won! Second half goals from Dean Ashton & Linda McCartney turned around a first half deficit after Guily opened the scoring in the 13th Minute.

Can't say too much about the game as I haven't seen it but quite a result and a confidence booster going into the new season.

West Ham United V Roma 04.08.07 SSN Match report
Uploaded by fredFiftyFour

West Ham United: Green (Wright 46); Neill, Ferdinand (Gabbidon 86), Upson, McCartney; Ljungberg (Pantsil 74), Bowyer (Cole 86), Noble, Boa Morte (Etherington 28); Zamora (Ashton 46), Bellamy (Mullins 78). Subs unused: Spector, Collins, Walker, Davenport, Reid.

AS Roma: Curci, Panucci, Mexes, Aquilani (Vucinic 70), Totti (Nonda 77), Taddei (Alvarez 77), Giuly (Pit 84), De Rossi (Barusso 77), Esposito (Brighi 56), Tonetto, Kuffour (Cassetti 46, Rosi 60). Subs unused: Bertagnoli, Andreolli.

Att: 26,425

Tevez Move A Reality

2007-08-05T18:59:00.000+10:00

I'm sure everyone knows but for the sake of completeness I thought I'd better post it.

We have agreed to transfer Carlos Tevez's registration for a fee of 2m.

It has been a long roller coaster saga since it began on transfer deadline day last August and I'm sure everyone is happy that the uncertaintly is now over and we can get back to focusing on the start of the season.

However I'd like to say that I loved watching Carlitos play and admired the 110% he put in during every single minute he was on the pitch. He provided some magic moments not least of which was his drought breaking goal against the yids and his celebration after. It had me running around my living room like a nut job with tears in my eyes

cheers Carlos.

Seasons Expectations

2007-08-02T11:11:00.000+10:00

After the dramas of last season and given the current team what are your expectations for this season?

For me I think the teams shaping up ok. Still think we need another striker, a creative midfielder and a LB. However, whether we get any other new players or not I'd still expect us to be pretty competitive this season.

Seems to me that Curbs is trying to develop a solid side and something to build on in the future, which I'm happy with.

Given the current team I'd be happy with a mid-table to top half finish and TBH I think anything less would not be good. Any thoughts?

Norwich vs West Ham - Live on Setanta Wed 1st August

2007-08-01T16:35:00.000+10:00

The Norwich friendly this week is live on setanta sports.

4:30am is a little early for the pig n whistle but the game is replayed at 15:45pm so make your excuses to get off work early (I'm "going to the doctor") and join me for a beer at the pig n whistle. I'm going to stay away from the score and watch it as live - Look forward to seeing anybody who wishes to join me :-)

Pig n Whistle
123 Eagle St
Brisbane

Southend 1 West Ham 3

2007-07-30T07:05:00.000+10:00

Finally a win!! Zamora, Bellamy & Ljungberg.

Goals courtesy of dailymotion

West ham 3 - 1 southend
Uploaded by super-goal

Ashton saved for Tuesday 's game against former club Norwich presumably.

Southend United: Flahavan (Collis 72), Hunt, Clarke (Liptak 82), Barrett, Gower (Lokando 88), Maher (Moussa 72), Hooper (McDonald 45), Bailey (McCormack 61), Black (Foran , Hammell (Wilson 64), Harrold (Paynter 64). Subs unused: Ademeno.

West Ham United: Green; Neill, Ferdinand, Gabbidon, McCartney; Ljungberg (Reid 72), Noble, Bowyer (Mullins 64), Etherington (Pantsil 78); Zamora (Cole 59), Bellamy. Subs unused: Wright, Spector, Upson, Collins, Davenport.

Referee: G Hegley
Att: 9,522

NEILL NAMED AS CAPTAIN

2007-07-28T17:16:00.000+10:00

Welcome home Lucas.

27/07/2007 15:25 West Ham United is delighted to announce that Lucas Neill has been appointed as our new Team Captain by manager Alan Curbishley.

The 28-year-old Australian defender, who is also captain of his national team, displayed impressive leadership qualities during our successful fight against relegation at the end of last season, and was seen by many as the natural successor to Nigel Reo-Coker, who recently joined Aston Villa. Alan Curbishley says: "I'm pleased to confirm Lucas as the new team captain of West Ham United. He has all the qualities needed to captain a Club of this stature. "He understands the role, has been used to it with Blackburn Rovers and Australia, and I'm sure it is an appointment that everybody at the Club is happy with."

Lucas, who returned to pre-season training at Upton Park today following international duty with Australia in the Asia Cup, says: "I'm absolutely overwhelmed and truly honoured to be named as captain of West Ham United. "This is a Club with so much great history and so many great players who have led the team out - and to see my name up alongside those people is a fantastic feeling. "It's an opportunity that I am going to relish. I will try to lead by example on and off the field and I promise all West Ham United supporters that I will lead their team out with immense pride."

Quinn: It's all West Ham's fault

2007-07-27T19:05:00.000+10:00

"There's six or seven new owners who are spending money, but are they getting the type of player that the top four want? I don't think so. If I was going to spend a fortune on breaking the bank, I would be going after the players Liverpool or Manchester United wanted to sign. But, in the middle, people are fighting each other and raising the prices for the same players. You can see it with West Ham and Portsmouth. The agents are having an absolute 'beano'. It's like a property market, where estate agents own half the property or, in West Ham's case, it looks like all the property. What horrifies me is people who have made money out of property or biscuit tins telling a class act who's managing their club who they should be signing. That's for the birds, but it happens in a lot of cases. I see players signing and chairmen standing there with the jersey and their arms around the player and I say 'Oh my God, what are they doing?' It's their call, they may be like that and may be in it for that, but it's not right. If I start telling Roy Keane who to sign, I'm going against my own doctrine. Football is football, administration is administration. I'm 100% behind Roy on this. People are being pressurised into signing players from videos and giving agents lots of money. We won't do that. We have to keep our heads when this is going on."

Right OK - so Eggy's choosing our players is he? What evidence does he have?

By the way:

Sunderland
Ins: Dickson Etuhu (Norwich, £1.5m), Kieran Richardson (Manchester United, undisclosed), Greg Halford (Reading, £2.5m), Russell Anderson (Aberdeen, £1m), Michael Chopra (Cardiff City, £5m), Paul McShane (West Brom, £2.5m).
Outs: Kenny Cunningham (released), Tommy Miller (Ipswich, released).
Total £12.5m out not including Richardson spending.

West Ham United
Ins: Scott Parker (Newcastle, £7m), Julien Faubert (Bordeaux, £6.1m), Richard Wright (Everton, free), Craig Bellamy (Liverpool, £7.5m), Freddie Ljungberg (West Ham, £3m).
Outs: Paul Konchesky (Fulham, £3.25m), Nigel Reo-Coker (Aston Villa, £8.5m), Tyrone Mears (Derby, £1m), Yossi Benayoun (Liverpool, undisclosed), Marlon Harewood (Aston Villa, undisclosed).
Total £10.85m out, not including Benayoun and Harewood fees (income) at probably about £6m total, so my guess is we've spent just under £5m.

OK so you need to spend more coming up from the Championship, but I think Quinn's being a bit of a dick if he thinks we're pushing the spending up.

MK Dons 3 West Ham 2

2007-07-26T08:22:00.000+10:00

Jebus..things might be encouraging off the field but our form ain't that confidence inspiring on it.

Our goals came via Ephraim & an Upson free kick.

Orient 1 - 1 West Ham

2007-07-25T15:36:00.000+10:00

Dean Ashton scored a belter and apparently their goal wasn't so shabby either.

Highlights from Fred54....

Leyton Orient V West Ham United
Uploaded by fredFiftyFour

Parker Injured, Friendlies Team News

2007-07-25T07:37:00.000+10:00

Scott Parker picked up a slight knee injury against Lazio. The midfielder tweaked ligaments in his left knee in the final moments of the 2-0 defeat. He hopes to resume training within 7-10 days.

And on injuries, journo Ken Dyer who is a big West Ham fan said something along these lines on Talksport :-

"the training camp at the moment is like an out patients department. Lots of "walking wounded" if you like. It's a bit of a concern to the coaching staff. There are one or two players who are looking to be wrapped up in cotton wool. These players need to toughen up, both physically and mentally. No names mentioned. "

Additionally he said :-

* Thinks West Ham won't get much of the money from Tevez sale
* Thinks Kieron Dyer is not coming
* Thinks another striker & creative midfielder are still on the shopping list
* Says that people are excited by how sharp Zamora is looking
* Says the club have pretty much just broken even on the transfer front so far and could spend another £20million
* People at club are looking at a top half finish, anything else is a bonus.
[thanks to Peter Robinson & Peter Powell from the WHU Yahoo list.]

In team news for upcoming friendlies, Curbs is to split the squad between this week's two friendlies. Apparently he wants the majority of them to get through 90 mins. :-

Squad to face Leyton Orient: Green, Pantsil, Ferdinand, Davenport, Dailly, McCartney, Etherington, Bowyer, Mullins, Ashton, Cole, Stech, Stokes, Hines, Jeffery, Widdowson, Fitzgerald, Collison.

Provisional squad to face MK Dons: Wright, Spector, Gabbidon, Collins, Upson, Noble, Collison, Boa Morte, Ljungberg, Reid, Bellamy, Zamora, Ephraim, Walker.

UPDATE - Orient Game was 1-1, with a wonder strike by Deano. Theirs was top shelp too apparently

MSI Lodge High Court Writ

2007-07-25T07:06:00.000+10:00

It appears MSI & JSI have instigated proceedings to sue us. From Setanta UK.

"I can confirm the companies have begun High Court proceedings against West Ham," said Teacher Stern Selby solicitor Graham Shear, the law firm representing MSI and Just Sports Inc.
The statement continued: "A High Court writ was served on the football club's solictors.
"The Companies seek the court's intervention to compel West Ham to release the registration of Carlos Tevez in accordance with contracts entered into between the parties."We are asking the court to intervene so that Tevez can be registered to play with Manchester United as soon as possible."

Personally this turn of events has me worried as I have always wondered how we could legally terminate a contract without the other parties consent and absent a clause allowing us to do so. Sure we have the PL on side in terms of registration but the courts may take a very different view.

In the realm of gossip, one of the Brisbane Hammers has connections with the UK press and passed on this snippet :-

"...tells me Eggy spent a month in Brazil & helped the prosecutor lay charges against the Iranian bloke. Apparently he never paid Corinthians a penny for either Mashpotato or King Carlos but did a bunk with them and they only ended up at Upton Park because “bent” Brown was the only bloke to show any interest. Remember they were hawked everywhere at the time but no-one was willing to take them on."

He also passed on something I've seen suggested elsewhere, namely that Eggy has had a gutful of Sky's Sports OTT anti West Ham / pro Manc reporting bias and has broken off communications with them.

I had actually heard this was just limited specifically to Sky Sports News and not Sky Sports in general.

In any case lets hope it doesn't have downstream ramifications for our games being shown here.

Big coup - Ljungberg signs!

2007-07-23T20:35:00.000+10:00

I think it's beyond all doubt now how serious Eggy and Curbs are about taking the club forward.

West Ham swoop to sign Ljungberg
By Chris Bevan

West Ham have completed the signing of Arsenal midfielder Freddie Ljungberg, BBC Sport understands.

The Hammers will unveil the 30-year-old Sweden international at a press conference at 1400 BST.

Ljungberg, who was also a target for Fiorentina, joined the Gunners in a £3m deal from Halmstads in 1998 and scored 72 goals in 325 games for the club.

He had two years left on his contract at the Emirates Stadium but Gunners boss Arsene Wenger decided to sell him.

Ljungberg, who was Arsenal's longest serving player, struggled with injury last season and played just 26 games.

West Ham 0 Lazio 2

2007-07-23T07:50:00.000+10:00

c&p's

West Ham United were unfortunate to slip to a 2-0 defeat against Lazio in their third pre-season friendly of the summer on Saturday evening. In a tough encounter in the small Austrian village of Lebring, near Graz, goals either side of the break earned victory for the Italians, who are slightly ahead of Hammers in their pre-season preparations. Despite facing sharp opponents, though, Alan Curbishley's men were unlucky to end up on the losing side, after Craig Bellamy missed a 68th minute penalty and Carlton Cole had two efforts superbly saved by veteran Lazio goalkeeper Ballotta.

Striker Dean Ashton came comfortably through another 45 minutes, while Bellamy played the full 90. Mark Noble and Bobby Zamora were rested after picking up slight knocks in training.
Despite the result, Alan Curbishley will have been satisfied by another strenuous work-out and will look back on their week in Austria as a valuable fitness exercise ahead of the new Premier League campaign.

West Ham United: Green; Spector (Collins 45), Davenport (Upson 45), Ferdinand (Dailly 60), McCartney (Gabbidon 45); Bowyer (Collison 65), Mullins (Boa Morte 45), Parker, Etherington (Reid 70); Ashton (Cole 45), Bellamy.

==================

And good news on Ashton's state of fitness :-

Dean Ashton has revealed he is straining at the leash for next season to get underway and has warned Premier League defences that he will be the fittest and strongest he has ever been. Ashton missed the whole of last season after a cruel ankle break in an England training session and after such a long spell on the side-lines the powerful striker feels as if he is a "forgotten man" but has vowed to remind fans of his quality. Ashton said: "You can't describe how difficult it has been - it was horrible. Playing for England was everything you have dreamed of and the next minute it has gone. "I don't think there will be a hungrier player in the Premier League this season than me. "I've got to prove myself again and prove that I'm not a forgotten man and that I'm the same player I was. I want to show people how well I have come back form this injury. "I can definitely say that by the start of the season I will easily be the fittest I have ever been and the strongest I have ever been and I am excited by how I will feel. "I think my football won't be a problem. My brain hasn't got tired or hurt - that is going to be the same."

The cultured forward also has England's next Euro 2008 qualifier in his sights, saying: "I want to get back involved with England as soon as I can.

"There are plenty of strikers who will be fit and raring to go but if I am in Steve McClaren's plans then brilliant."

The Good & The Bad

2007-07-20T07:46:00.001+10:00

Bad - Faubert out for 6 months with ruptured archilles :( He is off to a top surgeon who has previously operated on the likes of Zidane. Curbs had been wrapped in what he had seen of him.

Good - Keiron Dyer being lined up for 2 mil & pay for play. Some might disagree its good but a few factors make it good to me. 1) Faubert's injury leaves us light. 2) He is speedy, can play either side. 3) 2 mil is fuggin cheap

Bad - Mark Hughes is after Bobby

Good - We are after Nicky Shorey from Reading. Bid of 5 mil in the works.

Good or Bad? - we are apparently interested in Lua Lua

Pic of Faubert's ankle injury vs Sigma

2007-07-18T16:24:00.000+10:00