Cardiff City v West Ham Playoff Semi Final 1st Leg - My humble thoughts

Collision puts West Ham  in charge

So! Two nil to the cockney boys after 90 minutes. First things first can Sky stop saying how no team has ever turned around a two goal deficit after a playoff first leg. Stats like that serve only one purpose and that is being overturned.

If you ask my flatmates they'll say judging from the noise I made and the expletives that left my mouth we'd lost it 2-0, but as one correctly pointed out to the other when he arrived at half time and asked, "who (was) winning 2-0?" Had it been Cardiff the TV certainly wouldn't still have been on Sky Sports 1 and there's a chance it may not have even been on the stand.

On to the game, Big Sam went in with the team he started the game at Leicester last week with which seemed like a pretty sensible choice. Cardiff were much better at the beginning hitting the bar in the opening minute or two but then West Ham managed to wrestle control of the game. At the risk of upsetting any Cardiff fans who may read this (who am I kidding, as if word of my blog is reaching as far as Wales), I thought they were a little one dimensional, especially in the first half. Their main threat came from long throws into the West Ham box, god I hate long throws (mainly because West Ham don't have anyone who can take them well enough for us to benefit from them), wait til I do a "10 things I hate about Football" that'll be in there! Anyway as I was saying, I didn't feel Cardiff offered much to be fair, especially for a side pushing to get into the Premier League.

I have to say both of West Ham's goals were incredibly fortunate, Vaz Te did well to get the cross in for the first one and Collison (or "Collision" as my flat mate calls him???) managed to scramble it in. The second goal was even more lucky, in real time I thought Collision had just hit the shot really well thus beating the Cardiff keeper however the numerous replays showed it took a massive deflection.

Nolan celebrating another back post tap in

From then on West Ham didn't make the most of the chances they had to kill off the game. Cole forced a good save from the keeper, other than that he was the usual Carlton Cole for me, lethargic and appearing as if running through treacle when chasing through balls. Sorry guys, but I'm really not a fan of Carlton Cole, everyone that doesn't watch West Ham thinks he's some sort of goalscoring god at Upton Park, I always get , "he's your best player..." shouts from fans of other clubs. HE IS NOT OUR BEST PLAYER by a longshot. Neither is Kevin Nolan, another waster of game killing chances this evening. I often wonder whether I'm just not as good a reader of the beautiful game as I think I am when I hear commentators wax lyrical about Nolan because I just don't get what the fuss is about. If footballing ability was about stealing in for a tap in at the back post then doing some weird chicken dance or rowing with everybody that looks in your direction then Nolan would be plying his trade for a side chasing the Premiership trophy. Unfortunately it's not, to me Nolan always looks a little off the pace and I can never quite tell whether he's there to bolster the midfield or support the attack, at times he looks lost. As I said, maybe just me.

Have you seen this man lingering around Upton Park?

So West Ham have a 2-0 to take back to the Cardboard Box Fortress that Upton Park has been this year. I'd have loved it to have been 3 then I could breathe a little easier, forgive my pessimism but I've seen us in this position too many times at home this season, against Burnley and Reading I was calculating where we'd be with our well earned 3 points only for them to come back and leave us with none. Against Middlesbrough  we mocked their sub who bore a resemblance to Patrick Kluivert only for him to tuck one home and steal two points from us and that has been the story all season; not that lookalikes of 90's Dutch superstars make appearances at Upton Park (although I'd have like to have seen Ed De Goey or Edgar Davids or even Glen Helder) but that we just chuck leads away. Personally I think we often try and sit on very fragile leads, even in this game we found ourselves defending really deep at the end and but for some wasteful Cardiff finishing our lead going into the second leg could have been smaller or even non existent. It is for that reason that I currently have a smile on my face but I know we're a long way from the Twin Towers Arch thing that you can see from literally anywhere in North East London and even further from the Premier League.