Buried amongst the stats and the six-goal headlines from last night’s entertaining Championship win away at Lincoln City was the undeniable truth that once again, West Ham were shockingly bad in the first half. So much so that Manager Nuno Espírito Santo took to the pitch and delivered his half time team talk in front of his players and a somewhat puzzled home crowd.
The TV audience may have been denied the spectacle but for West Ham’s eleven, there was clearly a very public dressing down after their fumbling efforts to overcome a nine man defence that, until the stroke of half time, had dealt with everything the feeble Hammers had ‘thrown’ at them.
Nuno’s very public half time dressing-down of his Hammers side did the trick
Disjointed, disorganised and devoid of skill, every first half touch looked heavy, every dead ball was overhit and the Hammers had only Lincoln’s kamikaze-like challenges to thank for their superiority. Eleven v eleven would have provided a very different outcome.
As it was, Nuno’s half time words and subsequent changes did the trick. As the dailmail.com put it:
“With his side only 1-0 up after playing against a nine-man Lincoln team for the best part of the first half, [Nuno] thought an on-field talking to would be the perfect way to whip them into shape.
And what do you know? It did. Nobody except the Hammers’ staff and players will know what Nuno said but whatever it was it did the trick.
West Ham came out looking like a completely different side in the second half and scored five more, demolishing Championship new boys Lincoln City. “
We’ve been critical of the Hammers boss on many occasion so only fair to credit him for Austbø’s arrival at half time: The young Norwegian’s goal was a bolt of rare quality amongst the subsequent collection of goals that the Hammers forced over the line.
Good also for Soucek who suddenly discovers his touch when he’s in the opponent’s penalty box. Credit mostly, though, to the referee who could easily have bottled that second minute red card decision.
The joys of Championship football continue to provide endless entertainment yet few moments of quality -Austbø’s collector’s item was just such a moment and I’d doubt he’ll score better this season.
No matter, three points, six goals and a much needed boost of confidence.
Now perhaps the likes of Engels (dreadful) Pablo (Bambi on ice) and Kantė (heads the ball like a man wearing a blindfold) could go back to the training pitch and simply practise kicking the ball against a wall a couple of hundred times until they can do it properly – as all 7 year-old schoolboys do – before moving onto all that ‘advanced’ stuff involving other players.
On last night’s showing, they’re evidently not ready for any of that just yet.