Instrumental break?

Last game of a dire season at Upton Park and the match became more about the crowd than the bloody on-field 'action'.  Still recovering from a miserable coach trip to Wigan exactly a week before (the scene of grown men weeping uncontrollably into their claret and blue) and in keeping with the theme of the rest of the season, it was time once again, to be thrashed unceremoniously at home.

I've been to most home games at Upton since November and this was by far the worst I had seen the Hammers play - maybe in years. If it hadn't been for the in-crowd entertainment, the whole afternoon would have been a pitiful affair.  Despite the fact we lost 3-0 at home to a not-very-good-by-any-stretch-of-the-imagination bunch of Northerners, there were some hilarious goings-on.

The Bobby Moore Lower sported a number of Hammers fans in fancy dress.  There was an Angel of Death, Joker from Batman, Uncle Fester and most appropriately a couple of Grim Reapers complete with plastic scythes to emphasise that our six year stint in the the Premier League had been well and truly reaped.

Sunderland went 2-0 up.  Predictably, the Sunday afternoon loser in the East Stand started effing and blinding in front of all the kids for a quid, stating in no uncertain terms that the Hammers were a bunch of cock and he would see them next Tuesday, before half walking / half stumbling drunkenly towards the exit.

But here's what I love about the Boleyn Ground, and it's a scene that will just never be repeated at that crappy Olymshit Stadium that Karren Brady is so set on ruining the game for.  Undeterred, about 100 Hammers fans decided to cheer themselves up and do the Conga down the length of the East Stand.

 Brilliant moment!  Went right past me and captured a few shots.

Oi! Fergusson! No!

You can't dominate the game!

Do I feel sorry for Man U? 

Do I really feel (deep down) that I should have got behind a British team last night and urged them on to UEFA victory? 

No!

Great night of football.  Wish some of my teams could play like that.  Great night to see the dreaded Manchester United get well and truly thrashed by the best team in the world.  Sorry Man U fans.  Know it's a hell of a drop to fall from your high horse, but you're definitely NOT the best team in the world.

Had a debate going on with friends at work last week as to why, on footballing occasions like this, we should or shouldn't get behind a British team.  I pointed out that this was Club, not Country, and I'm not going to put on a half-arsed Northern accent and toss around like Ian Brown for the evening just for the sake of 'the British game'.  Half of my in-laws are Spanish; but even if they weren't, I would still have got behind Barcelona.  Would have still got behind anybody in fact just to see Sir Alex choke on his own Wriggly's.

I have felt for a long time now that Man U, Chelsea, Spurs and Arse-nal should just piss off out of the Prem and go around playing each other and continue with their main aim in life - trying to get one over on each other.  I'm pretty sure that would inject some well needed competition back into the game.

Have to say I love a good Man U embarrassment.  Not quite in the same league as 'The Night Man U lost 4-0 to West Ham' but there's still a satisfied smile on the face of football this morning. 

I truly believe that contrary to Old Trafford myth, there are more people in this world that hate Manchester United than love 'em.

Every little helps

Why doesn't someone demolish a Tesco's and build a fucking football stadium in its place huh?  That would kerb the growing trend of slaughter.

Say NO to the Olymshit Stadium.  Let bloody Tottenham have it.

Ryan makes me Gagg

Why the hell is Ryan Giggs ('OBE') worth £34 million?  He past his prime eons ago, hardly ever starts a game and has managed to rack up just a pathetic FOUR goals this season.  (And yet there's several thousand Hammers fans moaning 'bout Carlton Cole's dry spell.)

I don't give a shit who he's slept with and who he hasn't.  Could have been an emacidated ewe at the top of Mount Snowdon, or the spat out scraps in a Big Mac wrapper for all I care. But when I see Sir Alex on Sky News attempting to 'ban' a reporter from the next conference for simply asking the guy a straightforward question, I wonder what has happened to freedom of speech in our society.


So now Giggsy plans on suing Twitter.  I mean, hasn't he got enough cash on his 80-grand-a-week-for-doing-sod-all salary? We don't want him falling on hard times now do we? 

Good luck to him.  I didn't realise it was possible to take a message board to court.

Jog on Giggsy.  If you still can.

Grimmest sight in football?

If any other West Ham has the audacity to say to me that they think the Olympic Stadium is a good idea, then they can jolly well look at this. Even the hardest yob on the terraces could not be moved by this.

The memorial garden is shambolic. A grey, colourless and shockingly minute area flung without thought into a remote corner of the carpark at Coventry Shitty's stadium. What is the point of this? I hear you ask.

Next to this pitiful display reads a plaque stating: "The turf, soil and shale for this memorial garden are provided from Highfield Road, in memory of the Sky Blues supporters who had their ashes scattered at Coventry City's former home." The actual plaque itself fits in with the grey theme shown here and is a horribly imposing piece of granite etched over with adverts for the firm that provided it!! Hardly a fitting tribute.

If Karren Brady et all are not stopped, you will see a similar thing in just three years time at the bland, colourless and utterly pathetic Olympic Stadium that 0.0001% of Hammers fans actually want.

The same thing is about to happen to Southend United with Sainsbury's being built on Roots Hall.

I wouldn't call myself a Coventry fan, but I am from the Midlands and therefore I was happy when Coventry lifted the 1987 FA Cup. I only ever went to one match at the old Highfield Road stadium when Coventry were playing Manchester United (of all people) there with a dud of a guy from Tamworth that I had a 'thing' for at the time: Darren Morgan (aka 'Brain Dead'). But still, one of the saddest sights I ever saw was the image of the mangled stand at Highfield, contorted like some defeated monster in its death throes on the week the bulldozers moved in.

This is what will happen. And I have to face this twice over the next two years. People who don't understand me will find it hard to give a shit, and I don't blame them, but seeing this awful tribute really 'hammered' home the shape of things to come.

This is our future.