West Ham United - Season Overview 2013-2014

★ = Dublin Hammers Meeting (Live on television).
✈ = Dublin Hammers Trip.
LP = League Position.

PRE-SEASON NEWS 2014

BFS confirmed as manager for season 2014-2015.
George McCartney, Jack Collison, Jorden Spence are all released by the club.
Teddy Sheringham appointed as new attacking coach.
Joe Cole signs for Aston Villa.
Anderlecht defender Cheikhou Kouyate signs for €9million.
Argentinian striker Mauro Zarate signs from Velez Sarsfield.
Defender Aaron Cresswell joins from Ipswich Town. Matt Taylor leaves for Burnley.
19 year old midfielder Diiego Poyet (son of Gus) joins from Charlton.
Alou Diarra’s contract cancelled by mutual consent!
Ecuador striker, Enner Valencia signs 5-year contract.
West Ham sign Arsenal defender Carl Jenkinson from Arsenal on season-long loan deal.
Striker Diafra Sakho has completed a move from Metz to West Ham.

PRE-SEASON PROGRAMME - JULY 2014

12th Stevenage FC (a) 2-2. Downing, Jarvis.
16th Ipswich Town (a) 0-0.
23rd Wellington Phoenix (Football United Tour) (a) 1-2. Zarate.

Andy Carroll flys home from NZ with ankle injury and is out for 4 months... sound familiar?

26th Sydney FC (Football United Tour) (a) 1-2. Own Goal.

PRE-SEASON PROGRAMME - AUGUST 2014

2nd Schalke (Schalke 04 Cup) (a) 0-0.
3rd Malaga (Schalke 04 Cup) (a) 0-2.

The pre-season goal-fest continues : (

9th Sampdoria (h) 3-2. Noble, Diame, Burke.

AUGUST 2014

★ 16th Tottenham Hotspur (h). 0-1.
23rd Crystal Palace (a). 3-1. Zárate, Downing, Cole.

Seems like the influence of attacking coach Sheringham is finally beginning to show!
A good performance and 3 good goals, long may it continue!

★ 26th Sheffield Utd (h). Capital One Cup 2nd Rd. 1-1. Lost on penos!

Maiga leaves on season long loan to Metz in France.
Alex Song joins on a seaon long loan from Barcelona.

★ 30th Southampton (h). 1-3. Noble.

MoMo Diame leaves for Hull City.
French midfielder Morgan Amalfitano completes his move to the Boleyn Ground.
The transfer window closes.

SEPTEMBER 2014

★ 15th Hull City (a). 2-2. Valencia, Sakho.

★ 20th Liverpool (h). 3-1. Reid, Sakho, Amalfitano.

★ 27th Manchester Utd (a). 1-2. Sakho.

OCTOBER 2014

★ 05th Queens Park Rangers (h). OG, Sakho. LP:7th.
★ 18th Burnley (a). 3-1. Sakho, Valencia, Cole. LP:4th.

Sakho scores 5 goals in 5 starts!

★ 25th Manchester City (h). 2-1. Sakho, Amalfitano. LP:4th.

NOVEMBER 2014

★ 01st Stoke City (a). 2-2. Valencia, Downing. LP:5th.

Sakho out injured, but we come back from 2-0 down!

✈ 08th Aston Villa (h). 0-0. LP:4th.
★ 22nd Everton (a). 1-2. Zárate. LP: 6th.

Sakho, Valencia, Song, Downing, Kouyate, all out injured, but Carroll makes a return!

★ 29th Newcastle Utd (h). 1-0. Cresswell. LP:5th.

DECEMBER 2014

Valencia, Downing and Kouyate return!

★ 02nd West Bromich Albion (a). 1-2. Nolan, Tomkins. LP:5th.
★ 06th Swansea City (h). 3-1. Carroll x2, Sakho. LP:3rd.

★ 13th Sunderland (a). 1-1. Downing. LP:4th.
★ 20th Leicester City (h). 2-0. Carroll, Downing. LP:4th.

It was at this point things started to go west!

★ 26th Chelsea (a). 0-2.
★ 28th Arsenal (h). Kouyate. 1-2. LP: 6th.

JANUARY 2015

★ 01st West Bromich Albion (h). 1-1. Sakho. LP:7th.

Disappointing Christmas period!
Kouyate and Sakho head off for 4 weeks to play in the Africa Cup of Nations.
Song awaiting possible late call up from Cameroon.

★ 06th Everton (a) FA Cup; 3rd Round. 1-1. Collins.

Sakho injured, ruled out of the Africa Cup of Nations.
Song announces international retirement making him available for the coming games.

★ 10th Swansea City (a). 1-1. Carroll.

★ 13th Everton (h) FA Cup; 3rd Round Replay. 2-2 (aet) 9-8 penos.

Hammers go through to the next round after a real 'ding-dong' of a cup tie was settled with a penalty shoot-out! Goalkeeper Adrián scores the decisive penalty!

✈ 17th Hull City (h). 3-0. Carroll, Amalfitano, Downing.
★ 25th Bristol City (a). FA Cup; 4th Round. 1-0. Sakho.

Hammers fined for playing Sakho in the FA cup game against Bristol City... 2 days after Senagal go out of the Africa Cup of Nations... WTF?

★ 31st Liverpool (a). 0-2. LP:8th.

FEBRUARY 2015

★ 07th Manchester Utd (h). 1-1. Kouyate.

The mancs equalise in the 90th minute as we throw away yet another lead.

★ 10th Southampton (a). 0-0. LP:8th.

Adrián sent off... Carroll injured and out for the rest of the season, the Hammers some how hang on to a draw with 9 men.
Adrián has his red card over turned in time for the trip to WBA

★ 14th WBA (a). FA Cup; 5th Round. 0-4.

The St. Valentines Day Cup Massacre... The Sequel.

★ 21st Tottenham Hotspur (a). 2-2. Kouyate, Sakho.

We are 2-0 up, then BFS takes off Noble and puts on Cole, thus changing the shape of the team and inviting them on... they score one, then they fucking equalise in the last seconds of injury time... sickener! When are we going to learn to hold onto a led, that's 5 times this season so far we've let the opposition back into the game in the final 10 minutes.

★ 28th Crystal Palace (h). 1-3. Valencia. LP:9th.

MARCH 2015

★ 03rd Chelsea (h). 0-1.
★ 14th Arsenal (a). 0-3.
★ 21st Sunderland (h). 1-0. Sakho.

APRIL 2015

★ 04th Leicester City (a). 1-2. Kouyate.
★ 11th Stoke City (H). 1-1. Creswell.
★ 18th Manchester City (a). 0-2.
★ 25th Queens Park Rangers (a). 0-0.

Adrián's penalty save gets us the point at QPR!

MAY 2015

★ 02nd Burnley (h). 1-0. Noble (pen).
★ 09th Aston Villa (a). 0-1.
✈ 16th Everton (h). 1-2. Downing.
★ 24th Newcastle Utd (a). 0-2. LP:12th.

BFS informed that his contract will not be re-newed for next season!

SEASON SUMMARY

"Well Gary it was a season of 2 halves", who could have predicted the first half of the season after the tripe we were served up for most of last season? With Nolan and Carroll injured, BFS was forced to play Sakho and Valencia up front with Downing behind them, with no big unit up front we were forced to play the ball early into the space behind the defence and in Valencia and especially Sakho we had somebody who could stick the ball into the back of the net! by christmas we were sitting 4th in the table...

Then we played Chelsea away, a big turning point in the season in my book, instead of playing with Sakho and Valancia, BFS opted to play Carroll on his own up front... against Terry, Ivanovic and Cahill? Needless to say we were well beaten as Carroll hardly had a touch.

Our form slowly nose-dived after that, Carroll and Nolan came back into the team and the lovely football we had been watching disappeared. After winning a penalty shoot-out against Everton (my match of the season), Cup fever set in, but a dismal performance away to WBA brought back memories of the another St Valentines Day Massacre up at Oldham!

The last straw came against Spurs away, we were all over them, 2-0 up and BFS makes a mind-numbing substitutions, thus handing the initative to Spurs who duly took it, equalising in injury time... sickener! The rest of the season was a non-event, with results so predictable that I lost all interest. I couldn't figure out why that once we were safe in the division, BFS still played with one up front at home, that one being Carlton?

So BFS has left by mutual concent, I breathe a sigh of relief and wish Slaven BIlic the very best. Lets hope we see some good positive attacking football in our last season at Upton Park!

 

WEST HAM GOALSCORERS - 2014-2015

Name	PL	C1C	FAC
Morgan Amalfitano	3	-	-
Andy Carroll	5	-	-
Carlton Cole	2	-	1
James Collins	-	-	1
Aaron Cresswell	2	-	-
Stewart Downing	6	-	-
Cheikhou Kouyate	4	-	-
Mark Noble	2	-	-
Kevin Nolan	1	–	-
Winston Reid	1	-	-
Diafra Sakho	11	1	1
James Tomkins	1	–	-
Enner Valencia	4	-	1
Mauro Zárate (loan to QPR)	2	-	-
Own Goals	1	-	-
Total	45	1	4

 

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