Not very creative.

The first frustration came to me even before the game had started.  After a good spell on The Boleyn (the pub) we were to see Mullins on the teamsheet. Not that I dislike Mullins, but he should not be a part of our first elven at home against a team that we want to conquer. It seemed that it was only the first sign of "tooo careful".

The other day I saw QPR win against the Wolves and the CC-teams played with real intense. With few slow moments. The first half between Claret & Blue and Tootscum was instead more of 22 zombies not wanting to die - or at least mot to loose the game. Some decent moves but more of a slowfox than inspiring breakdance. After the break Tottscum begun to play better,  foremost because of individual skill by people like Modric and King. The two players that were doubtful to start. But did. Lucky us!

But we did not produce any attacking flair at all, not even after Tottscum scored. Parker had the ball, but always, always played back to the backfour. Mullins and Faubert missed absolutley everything. 

Can't understand why, but sometimes we did not turn up as a team and individually Tottscum were much better. Sad to say. Instead of a win that would have seen us up to 9th we now will have a dark December, just three points clear of the bottom three. And Chelsea at Stamford next...

We have scored four times in our last 10! Yesterday a pale Cole did not have a shot on goal (but two headers, othe last of them should really have been awarded with a penalty!) and all Bellamy's flew wide. Di Michele could have been a saviour but missed with just minute to go (Tottscums O'Hara scored their second less than a minute later). So our attack is a huge problem. But once more: The midfield lacks every creative spark. I'd rather play Collison from now on, or buy a player like Appiah. We do REALLY need someone who can fight in the middle of the park! And feed our attackers.

Green 7 - Decent game.

Neill 6 - Decent game. Responsible for some stupid free-kicks.

Collins 7 - Our best man on the field. Fought hard as usual. Don't know why he and Upson backed to to Greens lap when King - totally unattacked - was able to score the first though. Looked a bit like Konchesky today, so please get your hair back!

Upson 6 - No big mistakes (well, the fist goal was a mistake from at least one of our CB's)

Illunga 5 - May actually have been affected by the (stupid) english media storm. Had lapses of concentration and made his least impressive game so far. 

Faubert 3 - The worst performance I've seen by a West ham player this year. 

Mullins 4 - Can't pass a ball forward. Should not start in these games.

Parker 5,5 - Had no affect on the game. He ought to!

Behrami 6,5 - Runs like the Duracell rabbit and stops many attacking options for the opponents. So it's a player we like, but didn't offer much in attack.

Cole 4 - Bad game. As usual much left on his own, but still... King and Woodgate did not have to fight hard to hold him at bay today.

Bellamy 5 - Runs hard, and is sooo fast. But again to what use? Maybe he should play his teammates sometimes?? Three bad shots.

Subs. 

Noble 4,5 - (on 58') Lacked everything. Needs clearly a couple of games to be back to his potential. Would have prefered Collison this time.

Di Michele 3,5 - (on 73') If he had scored in the dying minute everything had been sooo different. 

Tristan  - (on 83') His debut for us. Very Welcome!!! Hopefully you can make the/some difference! 

To our defence we can say that 1-1 was really, really close, and if so, we may even have been a bit more positive with how we played. So it's a thin line..... 

But it was no happy night at Upton Park. It's actually easier to take a loss, if we plays well. And if the fan's got to choose a special game where we really DO need to play well - most of us would say Tottenham. But West Ham did not! So now: Beware Chelsea!