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Let’s not be the sardines that follow a Brighton trawler

 

By CandH blogger Allen Cummings

 

‘Oh I do like to be beside the seaside’ but when the particular coastal resort happens to be Brighton there’s not an awful lot of love for the place from this particular West Ham supporter.

Our last two visits to the Amex Stadium have been nothing short of nightmares!

A toxic 3-1 defeat in February 2018, which included an anti-board demonstration from the travelling fans was followed by an equally flat 1-0 reverse last season. Underlining the fact it’s not been a particularly happy hunting ground recently beyond that.

This Saturday we head south again, hoping to put the disappointment of last weekend behind us, and kick-start the season we have all been eagerly anticipating after our recent exciting summer signings.

In contrast Brighton had an excellent start themselves last Saturday, and will no doubt be buoyed-up by their 3-0 victory at Watford under their new manager Graham Potter. But with no disrespect to the Seagulls, they are not a team in the same class as Manchester City.

Manuel Pellegrini and his coaching staff will have gone through the City game on Monday – highlighting both the good and the bad aspects of our play. It won’t have been an ‘all doom and gloom’ analysis as some appeared to be advocating, and neither should it have been.

There were plusses if you cared to look for them. Pellegrini is a manager who likes to concentrate on the positives. He has regularly insisted the players need to believe in themselves. Play games with a swagger – be confident in their own ability – breed a winning mentality. That’s his style and it’s worked well for him before.

The players will have been hurt by last week’s result, just as much as the supporters were. We need to see that hurt manifest itself into a performance to get our season up and running. Ability is one thing, attitude and application is another.

Anything less than the right attitude on Saturday will be punished. It was Eric Cantona who famously said: “When seagulls follow the trawler it is because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea”.

We just need to make sure we’re not the sardines these particular Seagulls feed off come Saturday afternoon.

 

 

About Hugh5outhon1895

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

One comment on “Let’s not be the sardines that follow a Brighton trawler

  1. One of my favourite quotes, I wish we had a Cantona style talisman, hopefully one of our new players will turn into that, COYI !!!

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