Hugh's Blogs

Every player became a living Irons legend today

|

There really are no words to describe the emotions after a game like that…it goes down as one of the greatest games I’ve ever seen from a West Ham United team in all the years of supporting this wonderful club.

My first words on the ClaretandHugh Facebook forum were these: “Thank you God for letting me live long enough to see the Hammers of 2015/16. I’m just a kid again.”

Nearly an hour letter I can find none better to sum up how it felt to watch Super Slaven Bilic’s men complete the most magical and breathtaking treble in our history with away wins at Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City.

bilic-2-e1435061052358Savour every single second left in this amazing day because it’s unlikely there will be another like it for a very long time to come.

The stats showed that we had only 28 per cent of possession yet here we are tonight celebrating one of the greatest League victories in our history.

Some have already tried to claim that City didn’t pay us enough respect in a first half when we went two up. You know what, I don’t care because the Victor Moses thunderbolt and Sak’s close range effort were brilliantly taken in their different ways. We were in one word – SUPERB.

In the second half we witnessed Adrian and Winston Reid withstanding relentless pressure, the like of which even I can’t remember over many, many years.

Every single man at the back became a living legend on this day – they and every one of those tracking back to help out were quite simply awesome.

Manager Slaven Bilic takes so much – in fact all the credit – for masterminding this extraordinary victory and those at Arsenal and Liverpool.

I have written before that he is going to become one of our great managers – he may become our greatest and tonight I pay him homage. Superman Slav – you’re a sensation.

There were so many doubters – that was natural – and even those who believed he was the obvious choice could never have expected this.

We are a wonderful team and we are sitting in second place and with Leicester City, the Leagues top scorers. Incredible stuff given we have new players, a new back room staff and new manager.

Thank you for reading this – now go and celebrate!

Share this article

Hugh Southon is a lifelong Iron and the founding editor of ClaretandHugh. He is a national newspaper journalist of many years experience and was Bobby Moore's 'ghost' writer during the great man's lifetime. He describes ClaretandHugh as "the Hammers daily newspaper!"

Follow on Twitter @hughsouthon

0 comments

  • Bob The Iron says:

    Never in my wildest dreams could i believe we would bring the treble up over Arsenal,Scousers & Citeh away.Saviour the moment folks,it might be a long time coming again in one season.Thats not being negative,this is just something that doesnt come round often 😉

  • bubs says:

    Just got home from a great evening in Spain,now even the Spanish are asking who are Westham,
    What a great day and now we have a chance of going for the title and why not,
    We have the squad,we have the momentum,the style is hard to play against home or a way,
    Now I continue to believe and am a lot richer

  • petebonds says:

    For me the thing that shines through is the incredible team spirit from every player . Self belief is a very powerful component all top sportsmen and women have , and this team has it by the bucket .Great result boys ! COYI

  • Green man says:

    Well according to Collymore no team in Prem League history have won away at the Emirates, Anfield and the Ethiad in the same season….. Until now. COYI.

    • WHU647580 says:

      Wouldn’t take much notice of Stan. It’s been done 3 times before I think the last time by CFC in 2006. We’ve never done it before…..fantastic achievement!

  • Hogiehouse19 says:

    Amazing performance! Last time we withstood pressure like that was last day of season against Man U in 95. Best moment of the match for me – Nobes picking up Jenks and telling him to get the f*#ck off the pitch (for blatant time wasting). How many times do you see that in the PL??? Answer: never! Hero!

    • sleepswithdafishes says:

      yeah but his leg fell off an hour later lol

    • hammer8909 says:

      I think he didnt pick him up for time wasting. He picked him up because if he got the physio to come on for him we would be down to 10 men defending a corner.

  • canchaz says:

    Oh, I don’t think this one needs to be savoured all at once. As I posted earlier, this is one for the history books of West Ham.
    Does anyone else agree that in Reid and Adrian we have the best goaltender and centre back on the PL. Hart by contrast to Adrian looked very average and shaky more than once

  • TysonM says:

    Reid was so important to keep,getting him to resign was massive for us.Adrian is our no1,simple as that,if he is fit he plays.Whole team were fantastic tonight though.Sakho ran his nuts off for us.When he came back to tackle Kolorov (i think) in our box late on it just showed these boys will never stop going for Slav & their team mates.Team spirit must be huge at the moment amongst this bunch 😉

    • sleepswithdafishes says:

      And imagine the confidence it breeds when after 45 minutes of constant bombardment we still win. That is what great teams are made of.

      • TysonM says:

        Too true Fishy.Honestly mate,last season at the Etihad i felt embarressed & ashamed of our performance.Commentators on TV & Radio near as damn it taking the mickey out of us during the game.Wow,what a turn around though,feel so proud tonight with the boys,especially hearing all the pundits salivating about our performance.Having said that im not expecting any credit for us on MOTD if Shearer is about,haha 😀

        • sleepswithdafishes says:

          I’m only watching MOTD tonight so I can get angry at them for not giving us enough credit lol

  • The Boleyn Badger says:

    Whats amazing is that 7 of the starting 11 were about last season when we only won 3 prem games after xmas.The whole of the back four & keeper.You just know last season they would have capitulated against that onslaught.Slav must be putting something really good in their cups of tea 😀

  • jonnyem1 says:

    Good job we were careful who we never wished for, we got ourselves a manager who understands how to play ‘tippy tippy’ football with style, pace, goals and solid defending. We got ourselves an honest, wise, intelligent, respectful no nonsense manager who motivates his players and understands what West Ham is all about. This team WANT to play for him, WANT to play for each other WANT to win and KNOW they can beat anyone….! This season our last at UP just might be what dreams are made of……

  • ExPat_Hammer says:

    Seems I am about to be in the minority here…so….(preparing for a City-like onslaught)….

    Our passing was horrendous….esp 2nd half. We could not string together more than 3 passes with misplaced balls, passing that lacked pace…and…free kicks going backwards??? We tried to play out the back but our passing was a bit weak and we consistently gave up the ball.

    Our defensive unit was very, very strong….Collins coming on to replace Jenks and slotting in between Reid and Tomkins has given me great confidence…but…ever present Cressie was outclassed and outpaced and showed a little why he’s not first choice for England.

    Sakoo was fantastic at playing most of the 2nd half as, effectively, a defensive midfielder…but why did he have to. We well and truly parked the bus but hardly an attacking performance. Even Super Slav was trying to get the team to play in City’s half but the squad could not get the job done.

    I felt that Lanzini needed to do a bit more at closing down when we’re out of possession.

    Has stoked as I am about the win (end City’s # of Goals scored top stat, end City’s 0 goals conceded stat, end City’s lossless streak…check…check…and…check). The passing/possession game was lacking.

    BUT…and…a big BUT…top teams learn how to win ugly, win against the run of play, defend the hell out of a 2-1 lead…and THAT…we did, indeed, we did.

    OK, not a bad game after all 🙂

  • Big Dave Hammer says:

    That was the definition of ‘giving your all’.
    COYI!!!

Comments are closed.