Who cares what a bunch of disinterested hacks have to say when you can get the skinny direct from those to whom it matters most? Well, good news – Football Burp’s very own Jonny Forumer, lurker extraordinaire, is here to collate choice message board analysis so you can get the lowdown from the people who really know what they’re on about. Take it away, Jonny…

Morning folks, Jonny Forumer signing in. West Ham United are sitting pretty in 6th thanks to Kevin Nolan’s winner at his former club Newcastle United on Sunday, and after some initial misgivings it’s fair to say that the Upton Park faithful are sure taking to life under Big Sam Allardyce. I hotfooted it on down to online Irons joints Knees Up Mother Brown (KUMB.com) and WestHamOnline.net to see what folk had to say…

Stepney, KUMB.com…

Bloody fantastic result (and performance). Very very proud. The last 10 minutes were agony waiting for that whistle but we did it. Dare we believe that the soft underbelly is gone? No sign of it at all today or against city. This really is phenominal. Big Sam must take enormous credit. Its funny because before the game I would’ve taken a point but as the game wore on I would’ve been really disappointed if they equalized. I genuinely feel we were worth the 3 points today. I am sure the pundits will say that Newcastle had an off day but we have to be given credit for not allowing them to play. We were at it from the first whistle today. The team spirit is the best I’ve seen for years and everybody works hard for each other. What a fantastic couple of results. Well done West Ham. Truly remarkable.

isolated hammer, WestHamOnline.net…

This was a fantastic result and seems in no way was it a smash and grab raid.

Whilst Newcastle were perhaps subdued, make no mistake, they are a good side with quality throughout the team.

We are starting to get real belief now that we are a match for just about any team. That five man midfield of Jarvis, Nolan, Noble, Benayoun and Diame is definitely going to improve as time goes on and you have to wonder if results keep going as they are, where does RVT fit into this jigsaw?

I am not concerned about Carroll’s lack of goals as his presence on the pitch seems to be the perfect foil for the midfield.

We are sixth now and keep going the way we are and there is no reason we cannot stay 6th.

Boom Kid, KUMB.com…

Great Great result – isnt it wonderful to have a manager who knows what he’s doing, knows what it takes to get results, is tactically astute and gets the best out of his players.

stirlinghammer, WestHamOnline.net…

its sunday night, we are 6th, we battle, we win away to newcastle, spurs lost. we are fit, strong, effective & we quitely go about doing our business (and 2k west ham fans do us proud).

all of the above is quality.

plus its good to see BFS s’ professionalism & dignity compared to lambert (waving his arms around prematurely cumming in his pants as villa go 2 up) and adkins giving it charlie large as he draws at home to… swansea.

COYI
WELL DONE BOYS

jaybs, KUMB.com…

Amazing performance! those last ten minutes of the game and when the board when up for Five Extra Minutes, it became agonoy could we hang on. The commitment from Reid is completely amazing, what a superb player! Tomkins was great again. We are mising Va Te!

I know after such a great game it seems tough to say this but I wish we had a good player upfront! at half time AC looked done in and he had hardly done anything, will that first goal ever come?

bertie, WestHamOnline.net…

Good professional performance today. What struck me today was how often we played it out from the back. A tactical shift from say the Arsenal game where everything was lumped forward.

Thought we held the ball well today, also O’Niell did well in the last 10 minutes.

You can almost guarantee the headline writers will refer to long ball tactics, but to my mind there was alot of decent passing today and very few aimless long balls (No Collins perhaps).

rsnwhu, KUMB.com…

Cwooor, now there’s 4 points from the last 2 games we couldn’t have dreamed of at the start of the season. Sam must be very happy with his revenge after getting canned by them a while back and to do it at their house must be particularly satisfying. Bet he got back on the bus with a grin on his face. Well done there.
6th ? Blimey, I’m getting a nose bleed up here in this rarified atmosphere ! For sure we will fall back as the season gets longer as we don’t have the depth of squad to go like this all season………….do we ? Anyway, great stuff

p.s. My man of the match was Diame (could have been any of our team today in truth)
Last edited by rsnwhu on Sun Nov 11, 2012 10:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Isaan Iron, WestHamOnline.net…

Great result, sounded a full blooded encounter on Talksport radio commentary. Don’t know where they set up the Talksport commentary position but our fans were so loud it was almost drowning out the commentator.

Long ball. If the media keep that myth going, great, oppositions are in for a surprise when we turn up and play a bit. Sounded like the barcodes were expecting a lump fest from us, I did tbh, it actually confused me on listening to hear our players names called so often, the commentator must have been surprised too as he kept remarking ‘neat play from west ham united’, ‘good football’ etc when we played out of defence. When on the ball, noble, Nolan, diame, jossi and others were consistent names cropping up. When off the ball,’headed away by Reid’ or by Tompkins were regular comments.

Another commentary gem on noble getting a yellow card, ‘you can’t expect a referee of mike deans calibre not to make a mistake’

Yea Why Not, KUMB.com…

I’m just loving life under Allardyce at the minute. He gives every player the best chance possible to perform in their role and NEVER hangs anyone out to dry. I’m not going to lie, I was an early doubter when he took over and was probably in the ‘I don’t want that **** he plays **** football’ gang but he’s won me over, as has Nolan

Sarge, WestHamOnline.net…

This team has the one thing that many team of ours down the years have been missing – a pair of bollocks.

We’re in a position we’d all hoped we’d be in – but none of us really expected.

Thank you Sam – long may it continue.

PrinceH, KUMB.com…

I think that each and everyone in the team was a hero today, I really do. Reid was top of the pops, but still this was really a team performance. But it must have been really dull to watch the second half, if you ain’t a fan. Sometimes I think our tactic was to play as dull as we could, so Newcastle fell asleep. And in a way they really lacked energy.
Liked the subs too, how people can complain about Maiga is hard to understand. As everyone else he followed Sam’s game plan to 100 %. He did the defensive work well (until he took the top position at the end). Should have liked to see him more in front, but I guess heeasn’t allowed. Was very fond of O’Neil’s contribution too.
As Demel is ready to go, I’d keep O’Brien as LB. Even if Taylor can cross, it is too big chance to start with a nearly unfit player. And O’Brien deserves to continue.

neilalex, WestHamOnline.net…

That is an immense result. In my mind it has actually banished the fear of relegation, and I’m astonished that I can say that so early into the season; I cannot see that we won’t continue to pick up points displaying that kind of resilience, and equally, where the fuck are the likes of Reading Southampton and QPR going to pick up the four extra wins or so they need just to level things with us?

Hats off to Allardyce and the team. It is vital that we maintain and then consolidate within the Premier league, and currently they are doing that with a confidence and team spirit that is so unlike many of the previous sides we’ve had.

Muddy, KUMB.com…

I wasn’t too keen on Nolan when he first came to West Ham, but now i love him, he can become a right fan favorite and a little bit of a legend (not in the Moore, Bonds sense, but you know what i mean) if he continues

Josh, WestHamOnline.net…

Newcastle hit 82 long balls today compared to West Ham’s 57.

Cheers!

the pink palermo, KUMB.com…

My take on todays proceedings was it was another solid team effort in which genuinely standout perfromances were hard to spot due to several players playing well .Nolan, Noble and Diame all did well despite the third of those having an annoying habit of hanging on to the ball when a pass would send a team mate clear .Today he had runners either side of him in the first half who would have been in good shooting positions had they recived the ball , instead of which Diame hesitated and was caught in possession .That aside he was, again, superb .

Kevin Nolan is proving his doubters- of which I was one – very wrong in terms of his contribution, two or three times today he either got himself into great positions inside Newcastles box, or found one of our players with a clever pass .He knows the angles on a pitch and creates space for others frequently .

Noble gave a masterclass today in how a simple movement of the body can create space and take you away from another player with some of his moves today almost Brooking-esque .He’s a fabulous player to watch at the moment .
At the back we had the impressive Joey O’Brien putting in another good shift and Winston Reid launching several powerful clearing headers as Newcastle kept hoofing the ball forward .Be in no doubt they were the side playing hoofball today – but it worked for them, and several times Jussi was called upon as the last line of defence, however, he held firm, finishing with another clean sheet .Seriously , what more do we want or need from a keeper .

Up top Andy Carroll worked hard , but I stand by my earlier comment of him needing to take his chances – I know Pete has said he was offside but the one on one against Krull ought to be getting buried .Would Tynesides other favourite son , Alan Shearer, have failed to find the net in the same position ? Harsh, perhaps, but that’s what a £17m price tag brings .Otherwise he did a good job for the team , tracking back as neccesary , and providing some aerial ballastat the back in the latter stages .

Maiga , who came on for Jarvis, looked like a fish out of water .Frequently stopping and turning back to our goal when he had yards of space in front of him , time after time he slowed play down , which was frustrating many of the travelling support .

Yossi had a quiet game by his recent standards and we looked much more solid when the ever dependable Gary O’Neil came on, a shrewd move by Sam who must have sensed Newcastle finished the first half stronger than us and set about the second in a similar way until he made the change .After that, even though they had chances, I felt we were getting more of the ball and retaining possession a bit better .

Once again though it was the skipper who did the neccesary , popping up in exactly the right place to score the goal that secured the points .It really is an uncanny knack he has of knowing where to be at the right time , and for that , despite two other excellent perfromances in midfield , Kevin Nolan would be my Man of the Match,although I would have preferred him to do the funky chicken in front of the Gallowgate end .

Fantastic result West Ham, well played , up to sixth and Stoke to come .

sjb958, KUMB.com…

aaaskelinen 9 – Many top saves today, best performance for us so far
JOB 8 – His usual reliable self, plus more confident in possession today
Reid 9 – Got his head on everything, didn’t put a foot wrong, showed strong leadership in the defence
Tomkins 7 – Solid
Mccartney 7 – Usual solid self before getting injured
Benayoun 5 – 2nd poor away performance in a row, kept losing possession – Di Canio in disguise?
Noble 9 – Superb. Controlled the game so well, some of his passing today was sublime..
Nolan 8 – Got the decisive goal once again, tracked back well on occasions
Diame 7 – a game of two halves for him – superb first half, not so second
Jarvis 5 – Pretty poor again, tried to take on his man and kept getting tackled, crosses not great either
Carroll 7 – Proved to be another handful. Unlucky not to get his debut goal (great save by goalie)

Maiga 5 – Incredibly frustrating, kept turning back, losing the ball and struggled defensively
Gary O Neill 8 – Helped to control the game well 2nd half, and drove forward with aggression
Demel 6 – Looked a bit shaky when he came on but grew in confidence during the game

Side of Ham, WestHamOnline.net…

I must say I can suffer Ant & Dec tonight with a wry smile.

How far can Allardyce take West Ham this season? Have your say in the comments section below…