David Moyes could haedly have been happier with the result at a place he knows like the back of his hand this afternoon.
A defeat by Brentford and the international break has meant it’s been a long wait to put things right but the lads did that and moreat Everton.
The new West Ham were often very classy indeed and with a sharper cutting edge could have come out two or three nil winners.
But the manager was more the happy that they put the Brentford last kick nightmare behind them and showed exactly what they are made of as they smashed the Toffees unbaten home record.
At the same time they made it three wins on the woad and still unbeaten on their travels with a performance of quality and style.
Everton had their moments of course – that goes without saying – but the Hammers were by far the better team over the 90 minutes.
And afterwards Moyesie said: “Putting that behind me (the Brentford defeat) , moving on and getting another positive result was great because it was a long week after losing that game in the last minute, I can tell you.
The players have done a great job today and really stepped up today. Everton are a really good side and they’ve started the season well.
We’ve started the season well too and I want us challenging all the big teams and playing the best we can, and today we played really well.
We were a bit short as we were without a couple of the midfield boys today, and even shorter when we lost Tomas to injury in the second half, so we switched to three at the back and managed to see it out in that period.
We want to get back to the standards we set last year. We set really good standards last year and scored quite a few goals from set pieces where Paul Nevin does a great job in prepping us and trying to get them right.
We argue and fight over where we think the best chance of scoring is and today we got one in the end.
It was a really tight game. It wasn’t an easy victory by any stretch of the imagination.
Our job now is to get out of Thursday night football and into the Tuesday and Wednesday night one and a Saturday rather than a Thursday/Sunday one, and if we want to do that we’re going to have to do well in the Premier League and we’re going to have to try and balance it the best we can.
At the minute we’re good. We’ve got just a couple missing today which we can’t afford, really. We can’t afford too many to be out of the squad as we go along, so hopefully we’ll get everybody back.
As supporters, we can see our direction of travel under Moysie, as he has not only instilled a great squad mentality, but also a great coaching team behind him. The Director of Football and Scouting network infrastructure is coming along nicely along with the Academy U23’s now having a closer association with the first-team, mean that it is all joined up thinking now. As well as Rice and Johnson on the pitch today, we had Jamal Baptiste and Harrison Ashby on the bench, which is a glimpse of what to expect soon.
I am also excited by this new West Ham Hugh and that the squad has taken on the character of our manager, second to no one.
COYI
I’ve supported the club for 59 years and can’t remember such potentially exciting times. Ok mid 60s and 85/86 but this is very different and hugely exciting
Spot on Hugh, I was a little later in the ’60s but apart from the era’s that you mentioned, I cannot remember this club, building on any of the fleeting successes that we have had in the past. After the 85/86 season, we all hoped that we would push on the following season, but it didn’t materialise and as a club, we reverted to type.
It looks like exciting times are ahead Hugh and at times it seems a little strange that we now have the team and type of football that we have always dreamt of.