WEST HAM UNITED 3-0 COVENTRY CITY BY KEV MONKS
Things have a habit of evening themselves out and last Saturday against Brighton,City had some fortuitous decisions but at West Ham, their luck ran out, and Coventry fell to a 3-0 defeat.
Boosted by wins over Brighton and Forest,Mick Adams rested Steve Staunton and was without Stephen Hughes who had not recovered from a knee injury.
Backed by 800 noisy City supporters which included the Sky Blues Under 18 side which had won 2-0 at West Ham, a result which gives them a good chance of winning their league, Coventry won two early corners.
In the tenth minute,The Hammers won their first game,Robert Page cleared up to Gary McSheffrey whose shot from inside the area was charged down and cleared for a flag kick.
Michael Doyle sent over a kick, Gary McSheffrey got in a header but it hit Adebola and the chance went begging.
In the 15th minute, we had the farcical situation as the assistant referee fell over and gave a throw to City. The ball fell to Richard Duffy,who saw his curler pushed away by James Walker.
Luke Steele was in fine form and made a 20th minute catch,before pulling off a tremendous save after Marlon Harewood had raced past Richard Shaw.
In the 29th minute,Adams was forced to make a change when Isaac Osbourne limped off.
Steve Staunton came on and with Page and Shaw easily holding Teddy Sheringham and Harewood,the Irishman slotted into midfield.
Richard Duffy was attracting chants of "Sign Him Up" from the City support and three minutes before the break,a good ball from the loanee from Portsmouth found Lloyd Dyer who put in his only decent cross of the game which was hacked away for a corner.
Deep in stoppage time at the end of the first half,Gary McSheffrey found himself through on goal. Unfortunately, McSheffrey completed an un-wanted hat-trick of missing one on ones with the keeper as he allowed Walker to get down and block.
Our half-time repast came by way of a samosa,given out by a fellow City fan and was of a far higher quality than that of the singer who left the pitch to no applause.
Underfire Hammers boss Alan Pardew brought on Matthew Etherington for Hayden Mullins.
Pardew's side went straight on the attack, Richard Duffy was cautioned for a tackle on Etherington before Luke Steele somehow threw himself to his right to push away a Harewood header before getting to the ball when it came back in.
West Ham had Elliot Ward cautioned as they continued to pile on the pressure. In the 65th minute,a well timed tackle in front of the City support saw Marcus Hall get the ball. Now,no West Ham players appealed but referee Ian Williamson cautioned the City defender.
Things have a habit of evening themselves out and last Saturday against Brighton,City had some fortuitous decisions but at West Ham, their luck ran out, and Coventry fell to a 3-0 defeat.
Boosted by wins over Brighton and Forest,Mick Adams rested Steve Staunton and was without Stephen Hughes who had not recovered from a knee injury.
Backed by 800 noisy City supporters which included the Sky Blues Under 18 side which had won 2-0 at West Ham, a result which gives them a good chance of winning their league, Coventry won two early corners.
In the tenth minute,The Hammers won their first game,Robert Page cleared up to Gary McSheffrey whose shot from inside the area was charged down and cleared for a flag kick.
Michael Doyle sent over a kick, Gary McSheffrey got in a header but it hit Adebola and the chance went begging.
In the 15th minute, we had the farcical situation as the assistant referee fell over and gave a throw to City. The ball fell to Richard Duffy,who saw his curler pushed away by James Walker.
Luke Steele was in fine form and made a 20th minute catch,before pulling off a tremendous save after Marlon Harewood had raced past Richard Shaw.
In the 29th minute,Adams was forced to make a change when Isaac Osbourne limped off.
Steve Staunton came on and with Page and Shaw easily holding Teddy Sheringham and Harewood,the Irishman slotted into midfield.
Richard Duffy was attracting chants of "Sign Him Up" from the City support and three minutes before the break,a good ball from the loanee from Portsmouth found Lloyd Dyer who put in his only decent cross of the game which was hacked away for a corner.
Deep in stoppage time at the end of the first half,Gary McSheffrey found himself through on goal. Unfortunately, McSheffrey completed an un-wanted hat-trick of missing one on ones with the keeper as he allowed Walker to get down and block.
Our half-time repast came by way of a samosa,given out by a fellow City fan and was of a far higher quality than that of the singer who left the pitch to no applause.
Underfire Hammers boss Alan Pardew brought on Matthew Etherington for Hayden Mullins.
Pardew's side went straight on the attack, Richard Duffy was cautioned for a tackle on Etherington before Luke Steele somehow threw himself to his right to push away a Harewood header before getting to the ball when it came back in.
West Ham had Elliot Ward cautioned as they continued to pile on the pressure. In the 65th minute,a well timed tackle in front of the City support saw Marcus Hall get the ball. Now,no West Ham players appealed but referee Ian Williamson cautioned the City defender.
Teddy Sheringham who had been told by the City support that he was a Millwall reject in need of a zimmer frame, blasted well wide,standing on Robert Page in the process. Whether, it was deliberate,I don't know, but many City followers around me thought it was and that the former England striker should have been testing the temperature of the water in the early bath.
Adams sent on Stern John for the very quiet Shaun Goater on 67 minutes and this was followed by McSheffrey deflecting a Doyle shot wide.
City had defended very well up until this point but it all started to go wrong.
McSheffrey was cautioned for a trip on Hetherington, and then Duffy fouled the same player,giving West Ham a 75th minute free kick.
The ball was knocked out to the former Peterborough midfielder on the left. He crossed low in to the six yard box. Richard Shaw dived to head the ball away but could only steer his header into his own net.
The City fans chanted Richard Shaw's name in an attempt to say that we did not blame him and that it was just one of those things.
It was a bitter blow for the Sky Blues and nine minutes later, the Hammers had a penalty when who we thought was Substitute Bobby Zamora clearly dived over the legs of Duffy and was rewarded with a penalty.
Teddy Sheringham took the kick, he jinked the all towards the goal,Luke Steele got a hand to it but Sheringham was first to it to score. Mr Williamson spotted some encroachment and ordered the kick to be retaken. This time,Sheringham blasted high into the net.
A minute before time and with the City players and fans now having given up the ghost, Bobby Zamora added to the misery heading home unmarked from close range.
As the City fans left the ground,dejected by the unfair score-line, some West Ham fans stayed to protest about their Chairman Terry Brown.
There was no more than couple of thousand protesting. However, we did witness stewards diving into the Bobby Moore stand to grab those holding a "Brown Out" banner and stewards/police trying to move those in the end to our right out of the ground in an overforceful manner.
With the East London traffic not being too bad, we were able to park reasonably close to the ground but will probably not be doing again as one of the two cars in our convoy was broken into, the drivers window was smashed and the cd player stolen.
(PIC - West Ham Fans protest)
HT WHU 0-0 CCFC FT WHU 3-0 CCFC
ATT 26,839
GOALS - Richard Shaw OG (75 mins)
Teddy Sheringham (87 mins)
Bobby Zamora (90 mins)
Booked Duffy,Hall,Ward,McSheffrey
Man Of The Match - Luke Steele just beat Robert Page to the vote with Richard Duffy having a fine game.
Mare Of the Match - Lloyd Dyer. Dyer, yes he was.
TEAM
Steele,Duffy,Hall, Shaw,Page, Doyle, Osbourne (Staunton 29), McSheffrey,Dyer, Goater (John 67),Adebola (Morrell 79) SNU Pressman,Benjamin