Frustrated Slaven Bilic – sent to the stands by Swiss referee Adrien Jaccottet – saw the Irons come off the rails after leading 2-0 against FC Astra and declared: “We played well until the moment we had a player sent-off. ”
James Collins had been dismissed for a second bookable offence and the manager told West Ham TV: “We had chances to score the third goal. It was a professional foul from Collins and I can’t blame him in that situation. The second yellow was a little harsh, for me.
“After that, until they scored that great goal, they didn’t create but they started to hurt us. We still had some counter-attacks and chances, but in the end they scored one great goal and an own-goal, but it was a different game after they scored the first one.”
“The problem was also that we could not change a lot because we had already done two substitutions so we had to wait. We were one man down and we couldn’t change in case someone else got injured and we went two men down. We had to delay it.
“At 2-2 it’s a bad result for us and we’re not happy. Add the injuries to Joey O’Brien, which hopefully doesn’t look too bad, and Enner, which we don’t know until Friday when he has a scan but it doesn’t look good, and the frustration is bigger.
“We played good and created chances and were dangerous and lively and nice to watch, but we should defend better as a unit after Ginge went off.”
Of his own departure he declared: “ I was not happy with his (the referee’s ) decision. If they sent Collins off, then they should have booked the player [Valerica Gaman] for his foul on Dimitri (Payet). I did not swear, definitely, but I just asked why and he sent me off.”
With the Barclays Premier League season to start at Arsenal less than 72 hours after the second leg in Romania, Bilic said he will think carefully before choosing which players will make the 1,200 mile round-trip to Giurgiu.
“It was the same plan, no matter what the result is, that the majority of the players who will start against Arsenal will not participate in that game,” he explained.
“We would like to do both, but the Premier League was and is the priority for us.”
Did Bilic just make his first big mistake?
Knowing we were in a competition where referees were throwing yellow and red cards at us like confetti, was playing an aggressive player(this is not a criticism) like Collins when he already was carrying a yellow card, a big mistake?
With refs who have yellow carditis and the Valencia injury(will we ever keep a good striker healthy) I can now see why most PL teams don’t want to know this competition
Agreed. Though, not about the “mistake” about sticking in a hard defender. Still, I should shut my gob as I couldn’t attend, watch or listen to the game at all.
Tonks suspension and Reids knock kinda forced Slavs hand. Plus ginge really should have known better than to give the ref the option to book him.
Valencia injury is the biggest blow. To lose our backup frontman and seemingly Slavs go to winger is going to hurt. If he is out for any length of time the daves are gonna have to dig into the coffers.
Hopefully, Reid will be good for the opener and that pairing will suffice. Jenks can’t play as he’s a loaner from Arsenal, so, defense s/b interesting against Arsenal. Sacko will be good to go as will Payet and a slew of others. Valencia’s a blow so perhaps he’ll go two up top with young Samuelson? Would be a gamble sticking him on the big stage but…who knows. Our midfield should not be lacking for choices.
Prepare to see Nolan start in the next leg…which would most definitely make a statement about the PL campaign.
No matter….the excitement is building, the first 7-8 PL matches will be dodgy as we begin to gel and players begin to click. Can’t wait! COYI!!!
60 mins of good football last night, good passing movement and a bit of skill it was nice to see the team I’ve supported for 35 years playing the way I can remember. Stupid from Ginge and unfortunate for Ogbonna and Oxford what a star in the making.. Our so called weak academy is producing some talent that our new forward thinking boss is using instead of being simply sent on loan because they weren’t experienced enough… Might have been 2 2 , might have had a useless ref but for the 1st time in a long while there was some entertainment
As along time supporter since 1963,I,ve seen countless games when we have a substantial lead , and then blew it! One game that I will NEVER forget is when we played Stoke ,at half time we where three nil up!! And lost four three, so no change
Is anyone bothered if we go out of this competition? Can’t say I am, it’s good to have some competitive pre-season games but is it worth losing the top players for?
I said before the start that these games should be viewed purely as pre-season matches and so far it has been pretty much that way. Not quite the full staring team in any match but closer to it lately.
I’m sure some of those on WHTID are calling for Bilic’s head (again). But there was decent football played and ultimately the eyes are on the Prem season this year.
Irony is Collins was saying before the game to beware of dirty tricks and being lured into sendings off… Reid is obviously not being risked and Ogbonna was unlucky. Could happen anytime. Good to see the youth getting their chance to play alongside the main players, can only be good for them. Like Rio had with Bilic, Reiper, Dicks and Alvin etc in the team around him.
Now I know why we’ve signed so many CBs, so we can rotate them by having one sent off every time they play 🙂
As I am only a muppet that attended last night,I await a full comprehensive strategical breakdown from guru 671243 before I make any judgements from last night as my eyes can’t be deemed suitable lol
No idea what your problem is. You mentioned me in another comment recently for no reason (along with some others). The “muppet” comment was because of that reason. Absolutely nothing to do with your opinions on football or games which are probably as valid as anyone’s.
My problem is that you like others that frequent that site believe because others that don’t agree with your opinions are deemed as trolls, rabid dogs or in your own words a muppet. You’ve proved my theory right about you more than happy to give criticism,shoot down others opinions but when it comes to yourself you go on the defensive, if you give it large you take it large.. The site you visit has got a lot of good guys but people like you, Johammer and the other self opinionated ********s who shoot down others because they don’t agree with you bring the ridicule on yourself…
Haha,well i was there as well but i will always take 677869s opinion over what i saw.After all even without watching the game he will have a better insight than anyone at the game.He is the is the all powerful knowledge after all.Wetpants go to man,lol 😉
Lmao,i binned whtid because that guy just does my head in.Stampeding across everyones posts with his amazing knowledge & god like opinions.Not many people in life i dislike without meeting them,but he is definately one of them.Some top guys on there but he is a total opinionated,know it all jerk!!
Razor are you the same guy that goes on C&B as well? I never said anything on WHTID until part way through last season and I hadn’t seen you at all on there, let alone crossed comments. Perhaps it’s not the same person, who knows but I do remember a Razorwire that chatted on C&B last season and while we didn’t agree on SA/KN too much you never expressed these kind of views on there, bit strange.
He is the Mr Myiagi of all things West Ham…