West Ham 3 Manchester United 2
Sakho’s goal came from a really nice move in 9 minutes.
He deserved a bit of luck with his shot, which deflected off the shin of Danny Blind for 1-0. A rubbish clearance by Man Utd gave good possession to West Ham to begin that move
In 19 Blind made a gross positional error, playing Andy Carroll onside by 12 yards. The big centre forward advanced towards David De Gea but muffed his left foot shot.
First 25 minutes was so fast and furious that the Red Devils, swamped by wave after wave of claret and blue attacks, were lucky to be only 1-0 down.
In 37, Dimitri Payet had a chance in a great position with no defender near him. It was really shocking to see his shot go so far wide. But the replay revealed a particularly horrible bobble as he was about to shoot.
After that it looked as if United might foul their way back into the game, as hard man Valencia hurt Payet, and Rooney produced a naughty kick on Sakho in centrefield. Really quite mindless. The England captain should know better
At half-time, Michael Carrick replaced Morgan Schneiderlin.
In 52, when the crowd wouldn’t give the ball back from behind the goal, West Ham lost concentration as De Gea started a perfect counter-attack with a driven pass to Rashford,who found Mata’s support run and the Chelsea reject supplied a low cross to the far post that gave Martial a tap-in from six yards.
So it was now 1-1.
Then Payet curled in a decent shot that hit the side-netting. On set-pieces, Mike Dean inexplicably allowed Smalling to hold Andy Carroll without sanction.
I now hate holding as much as I used to hate diving.
To prevent that holding, Ogbonna and Kouyate now muscled Smalling and Rojo under the ball to allow Carroll to place a good header which Martial cleared off the line.
After a lot of scrappy skirmishing, Herrera shoved down Payet, Valencia got a well-deserved yellow card for a late tackle on Kouyate. After Rooney released Rashford, the kid found Martial on the left and reserve keeper Darren Randolph panicked when he was one-on-one, tried to anticipate what Martial would do, which allowed him to score far too easily from a narrow angle
1-2 in 72 minutes.
Goalkeepers are phenomenally important, although some managers don’t seem to realise that.
United’s fouling cost them an equaliser soon after they went ahead. When a Payet free-kick rebounded from the wall, the maestro picked out Marco Antonio with a beautiful crossfield ball and the right back headed in for 2-0. Excellent finish by a player who was a striker for Nottingham Forest last season and their Player of the Year.
In 80, Payet took another free-kick and Winston Reid’s header flew in off David De Gea for 3-2.
So this match had everything: history, drama, bubbles, noise, memories -and a pre-match attack on the Manchester United coach .
After going 1-0 up and 2-1 down and then 3-2 up, West Ham managed to navigate the closing minutes professionally enough to win their last match at Upton Park.
They played with real guts and I love that. Well done lads! Come on, you Irons.
LAST GAME AT UPTON PARK?
Had some fun there as a fan in the Seventies watching Phil Parkes, Brooking, Devonshire, Billy Bonds.
Very well treated there as a reporter from 1982 onwards. Tony Cottee and Frank McAvennie were on fire one season and seeing Frank turn Everton upside down was electrifying and unforgettable. What a player & what a lunatic.
Everton had a very good defence when Howard Kendall managed them and that why I told my journo friends that this game was all about when Everton scored. I said: When Everton score, it’s over – I promise you.
Everton’s goal took an hour to come and it was scored by Trevor Steven and that was 0-1 and I thought it was done and dusted.
But Frank McAvennie didn’t. A dramatic comeback started when Frank, an explosive improviser, got an amazing goal and then scored one even better.
Saw the Hammers smash Liverpool 4-1 one night when Paul Ince scored two great goals. Wasn’t what I expected but it very exciting. Fantastic atmosphere.
Looking back, John Lyall was a good manager.
Looking forward, I’m so glad they hired Slaven Bilic.
Top bloke, terrific coach, pragmatic tactician., tells it like it is.
Slav has already shown that he can collage a team quickly, get them playing with bottle and energy.
If West Ham weren’t moving to a new stadium, they could have been next season’s Leicester.
The Olympic Stadium is a different ball-game and it will take a while to settle in and create an atmosphere.