BRACE YOURSELVES
West Ham 5 Hull City 1
Something is wrong. The teams are supposed to be announced to the hundred or so in the stadium half an hour before the game, but the team sheet is proving elusive. This is normally available well over an hour before kick off. The twitter sphere is getting anxious.
Finally the information begins to filter through. Issa Diop and Josh Cullen have tested positive for COVID-19 and will be replaced by Harrison Ashby and Jack Wilshere. The substitutes’ bench will be a player light and will feature two goalkeepers, Nathan Trott and David Martin. Before I can get working on the formation that Moyes will adopt, it becomes clear that Moyes is also not out there. The third one with a negative.
Andy Irvine is in charge this evening, one of Moyes’ management team who shares an Everton and Preston North End history, as well as Scottish nationality. He even has the same mop of silver hair becoming of a man in his sixties, though he’s five years older than Moyes.
West Ham have offered to pay for Hull City players to be tested prior to the game, but Hull have opted not to have the test. What must they be thinking at this point? Reece Burke (5) and Martin Samuelsen (14) are on the bench for them and Hammers have Snodgrass starting and Bowen on the bench from Hull in years gone by.
So it’s another game against a Division One opponent relegated from the Championship in July, but they did beat a fellow Yorkshire team Leeds United in the last round. West Ham already know they have Fleetwood Town or Everton next week away in the Fourth Round if they win tonight.
Despite all of this, West Ham confound the critics by beginning the game at a blistering pace. Anderson in particular starts a cut above the rest and produces one skidding shot just wide and another just over, both in the first four minutes. In the eleventh minute Harrison Ashby brings a ballooning clearance down on his right foot just outside the area and hits a shot with his left foot shot just over. A foot lower and I would challenge you to find a better West Ham goal on debut. He looks the part.
After a neat right-footed cross from Yarmolenko, Snodgrass slams the opener home in the eighteenth minute to calm the nerves. Yarmo B There then loses control of the ball in the six yard box on the half hour when it seemed easier to score. That left foot needs to share some of its finishing talent with the right one…
Hull seem to have very little to offer up front, and Alese and Ashby look more than comfortable at the back. Sébastien Haller gets a second for West Ham on the stroke of half-time, again from an excellent Yarmolenko assist, and it offers further breathing space in a performance that belies any trouble in the camp, though the naysayers on twitter are still chucking their rotating toys out of their respective perambulators.
No matter. Yarmo Be There now hits a third himself ten minutes into the second half after West Ham are awarded a penalty for a push on Haller, and Hammers have the 3-0 score line they recorded against Charlton, with over half an hour still to play.
Harrison Ashby then is involved in a collision on the halfway line and is stretchered off with a dislocated finger. I blame an overloaded enthusiasm in the youngster. We really can’t have West Ham players enjoying themselves on debut. Next thing we’ll be winning Premier League points… it’s strictly Ashby De La – Ouch!
Ashby’s replacement is Emmanuel Longelo, who is barely on the pitch for ninety seconds before he gets caught out in the area by Hull’s substitute striker Mallik Wilks who has also just come on and who pulls a goal back for the League One side with a nutmegging finish past Randolph. In amongst all of this is Jack Wilshere, playing a blinder in midfield, controlling the pace of the game and rolling back the years.
As if this wasn’t satisfactory enough, Haller with a neat dribble in the area and then Yarmolenko after an Anderson pass hit injury time breakaway strikes to give the score a 5-1 lustre, a satisfying result and performance that demonstrates how it can be done if you hit the attack button from the start.
Irvine will be in charge on Sunday if the game with Wolves goes ahead. It remains to be seen if four-goal hero Haller has done enough to feature in the starting XI this time.
35 Darren Randolph, 4 Fabian Balbuena (captain), 7 Andriy Yarmolenko, 8 Felipe Anderson, 10 Manuel Lanzini, 11 Robert Snodgrass, 19 Jack Wilshere, 22 Sébastien Haller, 31 Ben Johnson, 42 Ajibola Alese, 50 Harrison Ashby
Substitute: 56 Emmanuel Longelo
Goalscorers: 11 Robert Snodgrass (18), 22 Sébastien Haller (45, 90+1), 7 Andriy Yarmolenko (56, 90+2)
