Sometimes I think I might be a bit wrong in the head. The 4-0 dismantling of Barnsley didn't soothe all of my West Ham fears, and massed rejoicing about us 'playing the game the right way' all of a sudden didn't ring altogether true for me. It was better for sure, but all things considered, it was a dire Barnsley side, and there were long periods of frankly rubbish football being played by both sides. 4-0 seemed to lend the game a lustre it didn't deserve.
The first 26 minutes of the Birmingham game however...
Okay, maybe not all of those 26 minutes. The start was a little wobbly but then we settled into a nice attacking rhythm, with the ball on the floor, to feet, with a fluidity and creativity that had been in horribly short supply for the prior gawd knows how many games.
The reward for this bright start? Being 2 goals down. Shortly after the second goal, and the ball had been plucked from the net and placed back on the centre circle, West Ham collectively fell apart. The passes went astray, the tackles were missed, the marking went walkabout, communication disappeared and yet somehow, entirely against the run of play, we grabbed a goal. As quickly as the candle of hope had been lit, it was extinguished by a goal best described as 'fortunate'. Mis-hit, and struck downwards on the half volley into the turf, it popped up fairly unthreateningly, but somehow eluded the entire gaggle of West Ham bodies between it and the net. It looked calamitous, because it was calamitous. We were staring down the barrel of 3-1 with half time mere seconds away, and it felt rotten, somewhat unjust, but altogether typical.
If I'm perfectly honest, I expected nothing but more misery from the second half. That feeling was compounded by the withdrawal of Maynard, who as ever had looked lively and along with Vaz Te, most likely to provide goals. Carlton had merely looked like Carlton, and he stayed on the pitch, with Lansbury replacing the more promising looking Maynard. I banged my head on the arm of the sofa, and looking the cat square in the eyes asked "does Sam have the faintest bloody clue what he's doing?". The cat didn't answer, but as it turns out, Sam did seem to know what he was doing. Lansbury threw himself into the battle head first, and seemed to be at the beginning, middle and almost end of everything we were suddenly doing right. If Noble disappeared from the game after a bustling first half, then Nolan, who had been largely anonymous in the opening 45, appeared re-energised and with Lansbury orchestrated a great comeback.
Initially Carlton did nothing to suggest he shouldn't have been the forward being substituted, but while the referee continued to ignore penalty shouts and turn a blind eye to niggly fouls, Carlton took it upon himself to grow into the game, becoming increasingly dangerous as the minutes ticked by. The second half was easily one of the most breathlessly entertaining halves of football I've seen in a good long while, if only by virtue of the sheer effort being displayed by the home side. Some of it was pretty, but on the whole it was just an unending assault on the Birmingham goal. At some point after the second home goal, it seemed inevitable that we would equalise. That doesn't mean for a second that my heart wasn't pounding out of my chest, and that my nails hadn't been chewed back to somewhere near my elbows. It just seemed like this effort and endeavour couldn't result in anything less than a third goal, if not maybe, just maybe, a winner.
The winner never arrived, and with a win for Reading against Brighton on the Tuesday night, it wouldn't have made too much difference. Reading seem to be a juggernaut right now, and I fully expect them to take the title. Automatic promotion is gone for sure, but this comeback should provide all the confidence we need to mount a strong finish, and to battle through the play-offs. Sam needs to resist the urge to change a winning side, and to look long and hard at the positives of the last two games and realise that none of those positives are to be found among his usual tactics.
Our squad should have romped this division. When you look at what other clubs are making do with, and achieving, our tentative, wobbling end to this season is rather embarrassing. Expectations have been high simply because of the quality we boast in this second tier. It's certainly not a side that would compete in the top flight, but automatic promotion should have been nailed on.
