A MONTH TO REMEMBER
West Ham 1 Liverpool 3
West Ham last won six games in a row in all competitions back in January / February 2006. Perhaps it’s worth putting those achievements alongside these before we say farewell to this run, against the backdrop of the coldest UK January since 2011.
2005-06
7th January Norwich City FAC3 (A) 2-1
14th January Aston Villa (A) 2-1
23rd January Fulham (H) 2-1
28th January Blackburn Rovers FAC4 (H) 4-2
1st February Arsenal (A) 3-2
4th February Sunderland (H) 2-0
13th February Birmingham City (H) 3-0
18th February Bolton Wanderers FAC5 (A) 0-0
Yes, it was Bolton Wanderers who finally put an end to this run on 18th February in a 0-0 tie which West Ham won the home replay of 2-1, the following month. You may not need reminding that this was the last season West Ham reached an FA Cup Final, in May 2006, against Liverpool.
So you might see why I am concerned that it is Liverpool this afternoon that Hammers are attempting to beat, to equal the achievements of that West Ham side 15 years ago.
The seven match winning run in 2006 featured within it West Ham’s final game at Highbury, the last game that Arsenal lost there, on that evening 3-2. This was the strange affair where Sol Campbell ‘disappeared’ at half-time after being routinely humiliated throughout the whole of the first half by Bobby Zamora, Matthew Etherington and Nigel Reo-Coker. This was the game when Thierry Henri became Arsenal’s top scorer of all time, a bitter sweet achievement on the night. This was the game in which new signing Dean Ashton came on for a brief debut cameo. The week before this Highbury hiatus came the 2-1 home victory over Fulham, an emotional send off occasion for Tomas Repka, a Czech player often sent off (5 reds, and 55 yellow cards) in his time at the club. In addition the 2-1 victory featured exquisite goals from Yossi Benayoun and Anton Ferdinand, either of which was a slam dunk contender for Premier League goal of that season.
The goal heroes of that seven game winning run were Bobby Zamora with four and Dean Ashton, Matthew Etherington and Marlon Harewood with two. The Hammers’ goal heroes this time round are Tomas Soucek with three and two from Michail Antonio and Craig Dawson (the latter will eventually score his third in this afternoon’s game).
So, West Ham still have Czech players in their line up who have both won over the hearts and minds of Hammers fans now denied the chance to see them in the flesh. A cup run is in play in 2021 that has the fans optimistic for a Wembley appearance at the end of the season, though it’s certain that it won’t be a repeat of the 2006 occasion, as Liverpool have already been knocked out by West Ham’s Round Five opponents, Manchester United. Also not quite a repeat as the final back in 2006 was played at the Millennium (now ‘Principality’) Stadium, Cardiff, whilst the new Wembley Stadium was still under construction.
So is the West Ham United name on the FA Cup for 2021, or is it on the bullet of this afternoon’s fixture against Liverpool?
The first half has both sides cancelling each other out in a cautious, edgy 45 minutes, but in the second, after Michail Antonio hammers marginally wide, Mohammad Salah hits a sweet left-footed shot past Fabianski to put Liverpool ahead. Moyes brings Yarmolenko on for Fornals, but it’s from a corner aimed at the Ukrainian that Liverpool break with Shaqiri hitting a forty yard pass into the path of Salah who controls it deftly with his right foot before nudging it past Fabianski with his left. The Hammerati may well moan their arses off tonight on Twitter, but that’s brilliant. Even the Devil’s choice between the sticks would not have kept that out.
Wijnaldum finishes off a late move past tired West Ham legs to make it 3-0, but Dawson keeps the score respectable with a late neat goal from a corner.
So that was West Ham’s silver bullet from an improving Liverpool. The only question that remains worth posing, is the fate of that fifth round tie a week or so away. I’ve already mentally traded this afternoon’s defeat for a result at Old Trafford. We know that seasons containing great runs often end with a bang.
1 Lucasz Fabianski, 21 Angelo Ogbonna, 15 Craig Dawson, 3 Aaron Cresswell, 5 Vladimir Coufal, 41 Declan Rice (c), 28 Tomas Souček, 9 Saïd Benrahma, 20 Jarrod Bowen, 18 Pablo Fornals, 30 Michael Antonio
Substitutes: 7 Andriy Yarmolenko, 24 Ryan Fredericks, 16 Mark Noble
Scorer: 15 Craig Dawson
