West Ham 2 – 3 Fulham | Final whistle, first impressions as Hammers go down fighting

A poignant start to West Ham’s Carling Cup tie against Fulham with tributes paid to Ludek Miklosko ahead of the match.

An all too familiar defensive lapse, with neither centre back bothering to challenge for a cross – saw the Hammers behind after just 13 minute with Fin Herrick having no chance as Rodrigo Muniz jumped unchallenged between the pair of West Ham centre backs.

However Morato’s header restored parity just a couple of minutes later as the Irons flexed their set piece muscles again, Mavropanos turning creator, heading back across the goal from a brilliant Engels recycled corner – cross.

Neither side looked secure sat the back, suggesting a high scoring game in the offing. The game settled into a pattern of Fulham being able to play through West Ham at will to launch attacks down their left – Walker Peters’ side – with Fin Herrick called into action two or three times –  whereas the Hammers struggled to make much impression over the half way line with Ajala and Pablo hardly getting a sniff of the ball.

Fulham restored their lead as a long ball over the top broke West Ham’s defence for Palacios to score, Orford this time switching off to allow the Fulham striker through for another one-on-one which trickled in. Truth be told, shortly after, Herrick kept the Hammers in the game saving well just before the break.  3-1 down before half time would have been curtains.

Instead, the Irons went in level thanks to Pablo’s first West Ham goal, from the acutest of angles. That shut me up. Brilliantly taken, oh bearded one. 2 – 2 at half time.

The second half saw a noticeable change of formation as Kanté dropped into a midfield three when West Ham were out of possession, Bowen and Solomon entering on 50′ presumably to fix the issue of Fulham’s attacks down the flanks.

Taty for Pablo saw a more aggressive West Ham starting to create a stream of chances, Bowen and Solomon going close.  Sadly it was a deflected shot within a crowded penalty box from substitute Oscar Bobb that saw Fulham ahead again, as he somehow threaded a run through four claret and blue shirts.

Bowen blasted one over, Nuno brought on Piroe and Scarles and West Ham looked to hit their opponent on the counter: Taty should have equalised in the last couple of minutes but somehow hit his shot straight at the only man on Fulham’s goal line.

So the Hammers went down – fighting – but predictably short of defensive quality. No disgrace, just a sense of disappointment that actually, we let ourselves down in the first half. Roll on Saturday.