Everybody have had their words to say about Craig Dawsin and all of them has been good.
Arriving in the first team on December 29, the 30 year old has been an absolute revelation proving himself to be among the best defenders we have had in a long time and scoring four goals along the way.
He became man of the match on Monday evening when producing a colossal performance in the absence of Angelo Ogbonna.
That the superb Oggy has been barely missed since sustaining an ankle injury in the Fifth Round FA Cup tie at Old Trafford is a tribute to the on loan Watford defender.
He is now understood to be a couple of games away from becoming a permanent Hammers signing based on him making 14 Premier League appearances.
And at £2.2 million he will become surely the signing of the season – quite frankly an astonishing bargain.
He wasn’t too pleased with the performance generally against Leeds but told West Ham TV: “It’s nice to chip in with a goal but more importantly we got a clean sheet
“It wasn’t a good performance but fair play to Leeds as they probably outplayed us tonight and we rode our luck at times.”
“We started the game slowly and could have been punished but thankfully we weren’t and fair play to the lads, we came back into the game to go in at half-time 2-0 up.
“It took some courage to come back, to be honest, because we weren’t sharp enough at the start and it was good to get the two goals before half-time. To come away with a win is massively important.”
He was keen to give respect to Aaron Cresswell from whose corner he scored his goal and said: “Fair play to Cress as he always puts it in great areas to attack it and even before I came into the side the boys were scoring from the back
“It’s important to make the run, but the most important thing is the ball into the box and Cressy puts it in great areas for anyone to attack.
“I should have had a second and only another night it goes in, but it was another great ball in from Cressy.”
You never stop learning in life, and nobody saw this coming, but prior to Dawson’s signing, we were supposedly after every centre-half across Europe. But I had to back Moyes’s decision and trust his judgement when the loan signing was made.
How right Moyes was, and it has pleased me no end that a player like Craig Dawson has earned this opportunity through hard work throughout his career, and is now getting his rewards… He has been an unexpected Giant in our backline and to score the number of goals that he has done is totally “Unbelievable!”…. This is why there cannot be any complaints from either Diop and Balbuena with his status as our No2 Centre-half alongside Oggy.
Dawson’s mention of Cress is a well-deserved pat on the back for him as I’d almost forgotten just how good a footballer Cressie is.