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Walsall came away from Upton Park today
with what was, by all accounts, a gritty and well deserved draw and could even
have stolen it.
Colin Lee returned to the dug out,
while Ritchie, Corica, Wrack and Wales were replaced by Roper, Matias,
Taylor and Birch. The only change made by choice was Birch coming in for Wales
upfront.
No one gave us a hope in hell of
getting anything from this game, but the Saddlers proved everyone wrong.
Kris Taylor had 2 good efforts on
goal, one a long range effort which had Bywater worried and another which had
the Hammers keeper beaten but hit the post.
The key was going to be containing the
lively Connolly, Reo-Coker, Zamora and Harewood who have bags of pace and cause
plenty of defences in this Division problems
The Hammers had more chances than the
Saddlers and on another day the could have won by 2 or 3 goals, but the
outstanding Jim Walker and some poor finishing by Zamora and Harewood meant we
came back home with a well earned point.
The first chance of any kind didn't
come till 20 minutes when Nolan had a long range effort on goal. Most of West
Ham's effort were from the edge of, or outside the penalty area, as Connolly and
Zamora all failed to break the deadlock.
Things got tense in the second half as
the Saddlers started playing one upfront and packing the midfield with players.
McAnuff, Harewood and Carrick all went on to have goal attempts in the last 10
minutes but to no avail.
Positives from the game are a clean
sheet, an away point where we didn't expect one, a good performance from Kris
Taylor, and another impressive cameo performance from the young Matty Fryatt who
got on towards the end of the game.
Sorry, Mr Pardew, but you duffed out
on your revenge for Cardiff yet again!
Full Time - West Ham 0-0
Walsall
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