Prediction League - West Ham United

[MichiganWolf]

Wolves host the Hammers in a massive match for European places. West Ham could effectively knock us out of the race but a Wolves victory would put us in solid position coming down the stretch. Not getting 3 points against Burnley hurts but a point keeps us afloat. A point would keep us afloat here and I'm afraid that's the best we can hope for until we get some attackers back from injury. Right now it's not about playing attractive football, because I don't think that's possible considering the personnel available. It's just about getting results, however they come.

Wolves 1-1 West Ham

Cunha

1) Woking88 - 36
2) theplater - 35
3) MichiganWolf - 28
4) GrizzledWolf - 25
5) abbobrom - 21
6) baggins - 18
7) GreavseyWolf - 9

[GrizzledWolf]

Wolves 2 - West Ham 1

(Cunha)

[abbobrom]

Wolves 1 West Ham 2
Toti

[Woking88]

Wolves 1-1 West Ham

M Lemina

[baggins]

Wolves 1 West Ham 2 (Cunha)

[Greavseywolf]

wolves 0 west ham 3

[theplater]

Wolves 2-2 West Ham (Lemina)

[baggins]

Game of two halves... We looked lost when RAN went off. Cunha was very rusty and kept losing the ball in key areas and played very deep, hopefully get better with game time. Thought a draw would have been a fairer result ! UTW

[abbobrom]

Anyone who watched the West Ham game on TV or listened to the radio, will know how much VAR had an affect on the match. Another factor which was only obvious to the attendees, was the near gale force wind, which blew from the South bank to the North. It certainly had an influence on the visitors second goal. Personally I can't remember a goal like that being scored from a corner against us before. Walking away from the stadium you took a buffeting from the strong wind.

Having totally dominated the first half, the wind behind, we should have been out of site, but once again our lack of a striker cost us dear. It was probably the most dominant half of football we have played this season, with Ryan Ait Nouri causing all sorts of problems to the Hammers defence. It was no real surprise that one of his mazy runs ended in him winning us a penalty which Sarabia converted via the post.

I said to the people at half time, who sit near me, that if I was Moyes in the dressing room, I would be telling them to stop our number three by fair means or foul. It didn't take long, and his departure certainly saw West Ham get into the game. We had no out ball, as we cleared an attack, it kept coming back, and once again our messing around in defence cost us a penalty. O'Neil made several substitutions after their freak second in an attempt to get back in, and it seemed to work to a degree. The unpredictable Traore had a long range shot saved by their veteran keeper and another whistled past the post before the ten minute extra time board went up. Many of the home crowd had left when erratic defending by the visitors presented us with a corner. Gomez sprinted over to take it and a few seconds later the Wolves crowd erupted as Max Kilman steered a header into the West Ham net . A point had been gained and the Londoners returned to the centre circle to restart the game, probably lamenting how they had thrown two points away.

We all know what happened next. The final whistle witnessed mayhem on the pitch. the referee was surrounded by Wolves players and Coaching staff, yellow cards appear to have been brandished as the remaining home supporters voiced their anger towards VAR and the Premier League in general. To quote what was being said is best left on a Sunday morning.

VAR has not helped the game since it's introduction, in fact in my humble opinion it has made it worse. How can you celebrate a goal now? I hear many supporters at different clubs state that they are giving up supporting football as the enjoyment has gone out of it with the dreaded VAR. If this game had have been at Old Trafford of Anfield, and the home side that had scored, would VAR have chalked it off? We all know the answer to that one.

These decisions, like many others this season, are costing livelihoods, and financially millions of pounds in lost revenue. While at supporter level watching live football is not cheap. Some families are laying out over two thousand pounds a year in tickets, before they take travel costs and refreshments into account. Fans all over the Country deserve better, apologies are all well and good but they should not be needed.

On to Forest next before a very busy week with three home matches in eight days.

[Woking88]

Many thanks Abbo. Excellent summary.