Hammers 2 Birmingham City 0
Job done and with great efficiency whilst not always being comfortable and for that fair play to the Blues who did themselves proud.
But two goals at opposite ends of the game settled it for the Irons who were always the classiest of the two teams and deserving of their place in the fourth round.
Arnie grabbed the first from close in via a simple close range header after some poor defending with Andy Carrollfinally making amends for a couiple of bad misses with a fine extra time header from Antonio’s cross.
Sadly the Austrian left the action after 20 minutes with a look of frustration which may suggest the injury – whatever it may be – is more serious than we might hope!
n between times it was frantic at times with a Nasri free kick producing a header that was well saved, and Xande Silva on debut, Antonio and Diangana all going close before the Carroll misses and clincher.
Birmingham too had outstanding chances bur Carroll headed one off the line and Antonio got back brilliantly to do the same after some shoddy Masuaku defending led to a big chance.
By including Silva we had three academy players on the pitch in the Portuguese striker, Declan and Grady Diangan and all of them performed with great credit, Rice being his usual imperious self.
Samir Nasri also made his debut and produced a very good performance which suggests we have a real creative on the squad – looking forward to seeing the guy over the second half of the season
It was never dull and although we started over the first 20 minutes as if we would simply over-run them, Birmingham fought their way into the game and created some fine moments of their own.
We move on and have a week clear for the players to get the tiredness out of their systems ahead of a tough clash against Arsenal.
A good game to watch and we look forward to another home draw for round four!
First things first – how great to see three academy youngsters in the team and performing really well – notably of course the imperious Declan Rice.
And although we can’t take total credit for Xande Silva the lad has been under development for a few months and looked a serious prospect on his debut
To all you Carroll Bashers . All it takes is dedication and recovery from long periods of injury . I would love to see other players with the same dedication and will to win .
To recapture that instinct we all know he has . The option he provides is undeniably worth the wait . He will take time to recover but Pelligrini is no fool . He knows and understands the true value of AC . Noble proved his class much to the annoyance of some and should appreciate his value .
I have to wonder how many Carroll bashers cheered when we went 2 nil up .
COYHAMMERS
It’s not about bashing Kevin – you can only call it as you see it. Allowances are made becos of no pre season and long injury term but the question is do we gamble again on a player who is faaaar too often on treatment table. And despite a goal he was lack lustre again against Championship opposition
Good to see AC shaking off some of his rustiness. Still looks a bit laboured though. Shame that when the shooting chances fell to him it was near the end of the game and he looked completely knackered by then. Still managed to get up to score a typical centre forward header though. Looked like he was getting some of his touch and link up play back. 92 percent pass rate. He linked up particularly well with Nasri in the first half I thought and Anderson in the second. He also gives us a lot defensively for a striker, typified in this game by getting up to clear a certain Birmingham goal off the line with his head. Nasri looks good. Knackered after sixty minutes but I think we have a player there when he gets fully up to speed. He Linked up well with Declan.
He gets himself into good positions. There was one moment when Diangana cut inside and shot wide of the post, I think if he’d passed to Nasri who was waiting for the pass in the middle he would have definitely scored a debut goal. Good game to watch I think because we had most of the possession and controlled the game for the most part. Birmingham came into it a bit towards the end when it was still one nil because they were fighting for their lives to get the equaliser but we were easily the better team and class told in the end.