I know it’s a bit late to be doing a review of the Norwich game but with no match this weekend I haven’t been under pressure to get previews or other news blogged. I have even managed to get some actual work done, my boss will be impressed!
Plus, if anyone has read my preview for the game, I have had a weekend in Dublin which means I’m only really getting back to normalisation now. Football and pints are great at the time. Not so great in the days following.
PRE-GAME
I had a painter coming in to paint a few rooms and with me disappearing for the weekend to Dublin I had to get up a 6:00am to move furniture out of the rooms.
The plan was to leave the house at 7:30am but with sweat lashing off me as if I had done 5 rounds with the old man beater, Conor McGregor, I left for Dublin at 7:45am.
With a bit of extra foot pressure on the accelerator I managed to make the Dublin football tournament in good time.
It was a shaky start for us with a one-point defeat in the first game to the hosts. But we soon found our feet and managed to hammer the hosts greatest rivals in the next match, much to the delight of the home support.
We needed to win the last game in our group stages to qualify for the quarter finals. Which we duly obliged.
The quarter final game turned into a farce. The referee took an instant dislike to us. Free after free was given to the opposition. They kicked wides and he gave them the points. We got a point to draw the game at the end, the umpire signalled a point, the referee gave a wide. Game over, tournament over!
Suffice to say we were annoyed and extremely disappointed.
Our exit from the tournament coincided with the West Ham game kick-off but to be honest there’s not much chance of me being able to persuade a barman in a GAA club in Dublin to see if he can get the game on anywhere. So, it’s the first game this season I’ve missed.
THE GAME
Luckily, I was able to keep up to date with the scores coming in on my phone. And just I was tucking into some chicken curry, rice and chips, a notification flashed up indicating Haller had scored. 1-0!
Now that I was fed and had seen West Ham one up, I could relax a bit and consume a few pints.
I had only just come back to the table with my second pint when I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. My phone pulled out of my pocket, like a scene from a western, I gave out a big cheer. This got some strange looks as everyone else in the bar was watching the Ireland v Wales rugby match on the TV. But I didn’t care, Yarmolenko had scored. 2-0!
It’s amazing how much of a difference the score line had made to me getting over the disappointment of getting knocked out of the tournament. I now had a smile on my face.
The pints were tasty, the craic was mighty, and the full-time whistle had gone in the game. The evening was about to commence in full flow. Oh, and it definitely did!
OVERVIEW
It is very difficult to give an overview on a game I never seen apart from the extended highlights on whufc.com
Now, I’m not sure if the highlights are a bit biased but, my god, how good did we look? Some of the link up play was excellent! Anderson and Masuaku, Anderson and Haller, it was a joy to watch.
The game could have ended 4 or 5 to nil. Anderson had a couple of chances, one which fell to Haller for a chance, Lanzini’s header, Snodgrass’ chance at the end, the two penalty appeals looked like penalties to me. Did they go to VAR?
The pressure put on Norwich from Yarmolenko hitting the post to turn them over which then lead to Yarmolenko’s goal is something we haven’t seen in a long time.
West Ham are very exciting when going forward and now having kept two clean sheets and only conceded 2 goals in 4 games maybe we are starting to get our defence sorted from pre-season and the opening fixture.
Its bloody typical though, once we start to look good and get on a good run, an international break comes along!
Let’s just pray for an injury free international break!
COYI!
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