Smash and Grab at the JJB
Posted by liam_wafc in West Ham, Wigan | 27 March 2006
Both Wigan and West Ham fans expected an end to end game and goals galore on Saturday. Both teams play football the way it's meant to be played, and both have been described as a breath of fresh air to a predictable Premiership.
And so it was a dissapointment, that both the surprise packages of the season failed to play to their full potential. Saying that however, Wigan dominated the first half and shared the second half 50/50 in terms of possesion. What really annoys is that West Ham had just two chances on target, and scored both of them. Other than that they didn't do anythig, it was smash and grab stuff from the Hammers
The only realy bit of quality from a game devoid of such, came from the right boot of Scotland international Lee Mchulloch (pictured), who scored yet another stunning goal from 30+ yards out deep into first half injury time. Other than that, it was smash and grab stuff from the Hammers 
How ironic it was that West Ham would do the same, scoring deep into second half injury time this time, but from only 3 yards out at most.
In fact, it was the second time in a row that we have lost out to an injury time goal at home, Manchester United did the same. Saturday was also the sixth game we have now gone without a home victory, something our gaffer Paul Jewell knows must improve if we are to claim a UEFA Cup spot.
After the game, he said: "Our home form has not been great since the turn of the year and that is something that needs to be addressed for next season." He added: "We don't want the season to fizzle out, we still have a chance to get into Europe but we have to do better in certain areas"
One of those areas that has cost us again has been our lack of communication between our defenders and goalkeeper. Someone pointed out that in our defence we have four different nationalities. Chimbonda can't understand much english (But understands what have the day off means ironically), De Zeeuw and Scharner speak very good English and Leighton Baines speaks Scouse.
So for me this isn't the reason for our defensive lapses. Without taking anything away from West Ham, both of their goals came from mistakes from our defenders. Paul Scharner, who has been fantastic all season, seemed to be tackled by Harewood as he attempted to head the ball back to Mike Pollitt, and the second one was our failure to clear our lines.
If these little mistakes can be ironed out, and we start to put the ball in the back of the net, then Europe will be within our grasp.
Next up for us is Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park. This is make or break for us, if we lose it, then Europe i believe will be out of reach for this season. But if we win, we are right back in contention.
But when you consider that we would havetaken fourth from bottom at the start of the season, a top ten finish would still be thestuff of dreams for us.