West Ham v Reading

Watching this on stop/start internet TV and how on earth we have gone in 2-1 down is anyone's guess? Good start with a goal from Carton Cole and to be honest we have dominated the posession but as always the crossing has been abysmal, we knock it around quite well but it usually ends up with someone hoofing the ball into the box straight on to a Reading defenders head.
It looked like we would go in a goal up but then Reading got a corner and Kevin Nolan's weak challenge on the scorer saw the ball fly in off Nolan's head (possibly) 2 mins before half time, then in injury time it looked like we failed to clear a loose ball and Hunt scores number 2 (not sure as the feed stopped as it was going in the box and then it was in the net?).
Hopeful to find a better feed for the 2nd half, the other one I tried was showing Cash in the Attic instead of the match :)

2nd half, so far so good on the stream but it's going from bad to worse on the pitch, Faye gives Hunt the chance to dive over his leg and Harte scores from the penalty :(
70 mins gone and West Ham still have most of the game but always hit a hopeful high ball into the box which Cole gets nowhere near, I think we need to sign Peter Crouch and glue him on top of Cole so we actually get to one of our crosses? ooh as I write this Vaz Te scores a cracking header :) Reading still look like scoring every time they get forward though.
4-2 :( looked way offside but given, nearly 5-2 but lino actually sees something wrong this time.

Final score 4-2 to Reading and probably deserved, we had the bulk of the play but never really looked like scoring, Reading always looked dangerous, Vaz Te and maybe Green the only players to come out with any credit :(

D Day

Forget the Premiership, the biggest game of the day is the Hammers v Reading.
Despite the dubious home form we are still in with a shout of automatic promotion and hopefully this is the day that Fat Sam sends out a team that can do it at Upton park instead of just on the road.
Even if the unthinkable happens the top 3 all have some tough games coming up so it could still all change.

Southampton - P 39 Pts 78 GD +37 - A Blackpool, H Portsmouth, A Crystal P, H Reading, A Peterborough, A Middlesbrough, H Coventry
We could do with Holly's boys doing us a favour today, then the south coast derby should be intense and they still have to play Reading. Hopefully Ricky Lambert picks up an injury or another straight red as they struggled without him before.
I'm still holding on to my long held belief that they will blow up soon but the end is getting nearer :(

Reading - P 39 Pts 73 GD +22 - A West Ham, H Leeds, A Brighton, A Southampton, H Nottm F, H Crystal P, A Birmingham
Reading probably have the hardest run in with trips to us, Southampton, Brighton and Birmingham but they have looked really good in recent weeks.

West Ham - P 39 Pts 72 GD +23 - H Reading, A Barnsley, H Birmingham, H Brighton, A Bristol C, A Leicester, H Hull
All winable but the home form is a worry.

Premier Predictions (Week 31)

Week 31 and this competition is still just about alive :)
Games over 3 days again, Man City have the chance to go top again while Man U play Monday against Blackburn who won at Old Trafford earlier in the season.
The big relegation game is Wolves v Bolton which Wolves have to win to stay in touch.

Aston Villa v Chelsea
Everton v West Brom
Fulham v Norwich
Man City v Sunderland
QPR v Arsenal
Wigan v Stoke
Wolves v Bolton

Newcastle v Liverpool
Tottenham v Swansea

Blackburn v Man Utd

Bundle

You could tell it wasn't a Premier league or European game because despite some really impressive punches, kicks and forearm smashes not one player rolled around on the floor as if they were dying :)

For the record the final score was - Bradford 3 reds, Crawley 2 reds and 6 yellows.

Current Form

Thought I'd share this one with you :)

Man Utd last 7 games WWWWWWW
Arsenal last 7 games WWWWWWW
Man City last 7 games WWWLWWD
Chelsea last 7 games DLWLWLD

Liverpool last 7 games ROFLMAO

Squeaky Bum Time

Nine games left to gain automatic promotion and the last couple of weeks have for the first time this season put that in doubt, nine games unbeaten but only 3 wins in that sequence?

Remaining games - A Burnley, A Peterborough, H Reading, A Barnsley, H Birmingham,
H Brighton, A Bristol C, A Leicester, H Hull
None of those easy but with the Hammers form this season you realy can't predict what will happen? we could win the lot or lose them all.
Reading is the big one, but 4 of the rest are fighting for a play off place, Bristol City are fighting relegation and Peterboro are showing good form lately.

2012 League form - W W W L W D W D W D D D D
Last 6 Homes - W D D D D D
Last 6 Aways - L W L W W D

23 Points dropped at home already this season, which is only one less than Portsmouth who are bottom of the table :(
I still think we will make it, but they are doing it the hard way.

Here We Go Again

So once again we have submitted a bid to become "tenants" at the Stratford stadium :(
At least the players should be able to warm up properly with plenty of room to spare, maybe we could have "double headers" of football and banger racing which would keep the fans entertained while the Hammers were scraping another home draw against some lower ranked team.

Premier Predictions (Week 30)

Here we go again, hopefully some better predictions than the last set :)
Nine more games to go and Longy still leads by 4 :(
Obviously the big game is the London derby which Chelsea really need to win.

Chelsea v Tottenham
Arsenal v Aston Villa
Bolton v Blackburn
Liverpool v Wigan
Norwich v Wolves
Sunderland v QPR
Swansea v Everton
Stoke v Man City

West Brom v Newcastle
Man Utd v Fulham

Well Done

Credit due to the Liverpool fans who produced this flag for today's game, and for singing Fabrice Muamba's name during the match, Proving that the fans can rise above rivalries in club football and the racism that Liverpool's management find so hard to criticise.

Thoughts go out to Muamba who collapsed during last night's game between Bolton and Tottenham with a heart attack reminiscent of Marc Vivien Foe's collapse playing for Cameroon in 2003.
At the moment he is still critically ill so I really hope he pulls through and can live a normal life afterwards.

Premier Predictions (Week 29)

Due to the FA Cup this weekend the Premier league has been split over 5 days.

Saturday
Fulham v Swansea
Wigan v West Brom

Sunday
Wolves v Man Utd
Newcastle v Norwich

Tuesday
Aston Villa v Bolton
Blackburn v Sunderland

Wednesday
Man City v Chelsea
Tottenham v Stoke
Everton v Arsenal
QPR v Liverpool

For the record here are the cup games, the winners get an early trip to the now devalued Wembley.
Saturday - Everton v Sunderland, Tottenham v Bolton
Sunday - Chelsea v Leicester, Liverpool v Stoke

So Far So Good

Just checked my Premier league predictions from August 9th -
"So my predictions for the season are -
Top - 1 Man Utd 2 Man City 3 Chelsea 4 Arsenal
Bottom - 18 QPR 19 Wigan 20 Wolves"
Swap Tottenham for Chelsea and it's looking good at the moment.

At the bottom it's almost certain to be those 3 plus Bolton and Blackburn, Blackburn always look likely to score goals so they should be OK, Bolton could drop in place of QPR.
At the top it's still a 2 way fight with the 3 London teams fighting for 2 places?
Chelsea despite Luiz have the best defence but seem to have forgotten how to score enough goals, Arsenal are totally unpredictable either very good or very bad, Tottenham's defence is a problem although Brad Friedel will save them a few points.
So I'll stick with my previous predictions :)

Homes From Hell

What is going on at Upton Park?
Away from home we have a fine record (the best in the championship) with 10 wins 3 draws and only 4 losses, but at home we've only managed 9 wins and 6 draws with 3 losses as well?
We have drawn our last 4 home games dropping 8 points and if you look at the whole season we have only managed to win by more than one goal twice (Blackpool 4-0, Derby 3-1) the rest have been scraped one goal wins.
There are 11 games to go and fortunately 6 of them are away to try to bounce back into the prem, it is looking a lot harder than it did a few weeks back with Reading's run of wins, maybe we should hope that one of the stands falls down forcing us to play away for the rest of the season?

Premier Predictions (Week 28)

Here we go again, this week we've got a bonus game of the scouse derby on Tuesday.
The week after the games are spread over 5 days but I'll worry about that then :)
This week some really hard to call games, but they always are ...

Saturday ..
Bolton v QPR
Aston Villa v Fulham
Chelsea v Stoke
Sunderland v Liverpool
Wolves v Blackburn
Everton v Tottenham

Sunday ..
Man Utd v West Brom
Swansea v Man City
Norwich v Wigan

Monday ..
Arsenal v Newcastle

Tuesday ..
Liverpool v Everton

Shame

Sad news indeed :(

All us non Chelsea fans are in mourning after AVB Andre Vilas Boas (or possibly Armin Van Buuren?) was shown the door today.
We think he was doing a marvellous job and should have been given a lifetime contract.

Brighter news is that Rafa Benitez is the favourite to take over? hahaha :)

I think I'll put a few quid on Capello, and maybe 50p on Lampard?

Premier Predictions (Week 27)

Thursday already, here's this weeks unpredictables.

Liverpool v Arsenal
Blackburn v Aston Villa
Man City v Bolton
QPR v Everton
Stoke v Norwich
West Brom v Chelsea
Wigan v Swansea

Newcastle v Sunderland
Fulham v Wolves
Tottenham v Man Utd