It would be fair to say this interminable international break has offer mixed fortunes for West Ham’s called-up contingent. Manor Solomon injured and left out from the starting eleven was probably good news for West Ham as the winger got some respite, but was still called on late-on from the bench.
Dinos Mavropanos, on course for a four-game international marathon, will return mid week in desperate need of a break after after a pretty full-on first two months of the Championship. Instead of which, he’ll likely be asked to lace his boots up again against QPR on Friday night.
But for Mads Hermansen, a little order was restored last night after his bruising international encounter with Portugal just a few days before.
Confidence boosting clean sheet for Hermansen after Portuguese mauling
The Dane had presided over something of a thumping last Thursday as the Portuguese ran out comfortable 4-2 winners, despite half a dozen decent saves from West Ham’s number one.
So, firstly retaining his place in the national side would have been a big confidence boost for Hermansen – who’d been left out of Denmark’s first two games in this international break – and presiding over a nice 1-0 win over Wales, clean sheet and all, was just what the (West Ham) doctor ordered ahead of the resumption of football now just four days away.
Hermansen now travels back to Rush Green to prepare for Friday night under the lights with a degree of confidence that was probably lacking after being benched in favour of Chelsea’s loan goal keeper Filip Jørgensen for the first two of his countries’ fixtures.