News

Hart admits Irons were “terrible” and he faces a battle

|

joe-hart-manchester-city-hull-premier-league_3001982Captain for the day Joe Hart admitted the Hammers were “terrible” against Shrewsbury Town today (Sun).

It’s easy to point to his lack of form at times but there’ no faulting his honesty or assessment of the team’s performance.

He snapped: “We were terrible today and there is a feeling in the dressing room that we got out of jail a bit. Shrewsbury were really good, they’ve been in a good run of form and it’s a tough place to come.

“We didn’t play well. We’ve had three games in a week, which is a lot of football for some of the lads, but there were some big opportunities for the likes of myself to get some game-time. We didn’t necessarily take them, but we’re still in the cup and we’ll see what happens in the replay.

“We can’t blame fatigue, but there was some terrible football played and we lost a lot of battles. It was a really tough cup tie and I think nil-nil is almost a fair result.”

“I face a battle to re-establish myself. We’ve had some good results recently and I’ve not been playing, so I’ve got to use days like this to try and stake my claim.

“The replay is going to be another tough game and hopefully we’ll have a few more bodies back as we had a lot of injuries and people who couldn’t make the trip, so hopefully we’ll have a stronger squad and advance to the next round.”

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

  • West Ham Fan No 32 says:

    An honest assessment Joe, we did get out of jail for sure, we are lucky they have terrible finishers and a lack of real pace but they did play well I would be very surprised if we don’t win the replay, if the chairmen don’t stump up some major cash for central midfielders then its going to be a real long slog until May, Hernandez and Ayew are hopeless without supply, I would like to see what they can do with a player that can get on the ball high up the pitch and slot the ball through for them to run onto, since Payet left we have missed that.

  • Lazurus. rises like a salmon says:

    Groundhog day ! Kouyate looks nackered ? Played to many games in a short period ? Bolloxxx
    He’s been playing like this all season ! World cup coming up ? Wants to stay fit ? Wants away ? Who knows , why start him ! Obiang no pace , passing is rubbish , been reading all comments as we do , its same old same old , all been said before ! Pointless going over the same old ground, Sullivan needs to dig deep and if not were going to struggle ! Simple !
    Moyes not seeing the problems as well ! Hands tied or not he’s not addressing them !
    I think the pea and ayew can’t play together ! One is just shyte (ayew) the other is suffering because of lack of creative play and is getting unfair criticism ! Stick with rice and Cullen but Burke for me doesn’t seem ready yet ? Not convinced he is going to make it ! Vic didn’t get a run out ? As said sully needs to bring in players and Moyes needs to be able to coach offensive football if and when we get new blood but I don’t think he’s offensively got that in his locker but would love to be proved wrong ! To play ayew and pea up top and hit long balls to them , if they reached them that is ? Was never going to work was it ! Both are goal hangers and foxy. ! Was Carroll injured ? Didn’t travel ? Worst performance of the season for me and there’s been some lol! Expect some more and fingers crossed we get some players in to put some oomph in the team and finesse ! Were in the hat but I don’t think Moyes wanted that ?
    Ogbonna , Cullen , rice , Arthur pick of our bunch for me ! Not good enough everywhere else?
    Embarrassing !!! 😕

  • jimbo says:

    We weren’t terrible – we weren’t that good! Shocking performance. Out-run, out battled and all by a league one team ffs. Couldn’t get the ball down and string two passes together, but that isn’t anything new.

    Interesting that Carroll, Sakho and Lanzini aren’t cup-tied yet!

  • Lump_hammer says:

    Would it not be better to play the whole under 23/development team? As I see it. The first team looks shot of confidence and creativity so by adding just a few players from the reserves you’re weakening a side in poor form for two reasons. Firstly the players coming in are not as developed as the first teamers they are standing in for and secondly the players coming in aren’t used to playing with the first teamers like they are with their regular team mates so in essence I feel there’s a valid argument to be made that we could have supplemented a hungry 2nd team with in form first teamers like the Masuakus and Zabaletas instead of weakening an already tired and lacklustre first team.
    For me players like Reid, Obiang and Kouyate would benefit from some pressure for places. Besides all that though, what is the 2nd team there for?

Comments are closed.