WEST HAM UNITED (London Stadium)

PREMIER LEAGUE, WEST HAM UNITED 0-0 EVERTON, ATTENDANCE: 56,971

Today I made my way to that there London and my first taste of West Ham United's new home at the London Stadium (née Olympic Stadium). As it was my first ever first visit to E20 I thought I would add my two penneth worth by doing a brief write up on my day out.

This is The Hammers' debut season at their new surroundings after leaving their beloved, and intimidating, Boleyn Ground after 112 years at the end of the 2015/16 season.

I made my way to Stratford, from Euston via underground to Highbury & Islington then overground to Hackney Wick. The ground is a fifteen minute walk from here but, naturally, I went via the excellent Howling Hops Tank Bar and it's equally good next door neighbour, The Crate Brewery.

The London Stadium was built as the centre piece for the 2012 London Olympic Games and was obviously designed primarily as an athletics venue. Part of the post games legacy was the use for future events, with the stadium being converted into a multi-purpose stadium capable of hosting football, athletics and other non-sporting events. 

There was a bidding process to become the tenants of the London Stadium and West Ham were awarded, controversially in some eyes, a 99 year lease. The official capacity for football is around 60,000 (down from the original 80,000 capacity) but the club have currently capped this at around 57,000, of which approx 50,000 are season ticket holders. 

From the outside the ground is aesthetically pleasing and inside the views are unobstructed, there is plenty of legroom in the seats and the facilities are decent (even if they did run out of pies at half time).

However with the stadium still being an athletics venue, this has meant the installation of retractable seats to cover over the running track, this has created a huge gap between the supporters in the lower tier and those in the upper tier.

Today I was in the upper tier behind the goal, close to the back of the stand, and it felt like I was miles away from the action. My eyes are not the best anyhow so it was not a good match watching experience at all. Also with that aforementioned gap, the atmosphere was seriously affected, not that there was much to excite. 

The game was utter, utter dross. The Toffees did not register a shot on target in the entire 90 minutes. West Ham did create a few half chances, so they will probably more disappointed with the draw, but the match was not a good advert for the so called best league in Europe.

Post match I was directed towards Stratford station and, despite my best attempts to find the Tap East which is somewhere in the adjacent Westfield Shopping Centre, I soon made my way back Euston for a couple of more beers (in the Euston Tap and Bree Louise) before catching my train home.

Overall an enjoyable day in the capital, from a social perspective, but from a football point of view I didn't think much of the ground as a viewing spectator. Hopefully any future developments may improve things.

If I was a West Ham fan though I would feel very disappointed having left the Boleyn Ground for this place but that's modern football I suppose and I would imagine I am in the minority. I won't, however, be in any rush to revisit the London Stadium.

Cheers!

WEST HAM UNITED (Boleyn Ground)

FA PREMIER LEAGUE, WEST HAM UNITED 1-2 EVERTON, ATTENDANCE: 34,977

This was my 10th and final Everton away game of the 2014/15 season. I normally don't bother blogging Premier League grounds these days as they are omnipresent in this day and age. 

However, as this is almost certainly my last ever visit to the Boleyn Ground I thought I would make an exception.

West Ham will be moving to the Olympic Stadium from season 2016/17 onwards, vacating what has been their home since 1904. The ground has played host to a number of iconic footballers and two of them have stands named after them, namely Bobby Moore and Sir Trevor Brooking. 

West Ham also provided three of England's 1966 World Cup winning team and there is a statue of Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters, along with Everton's Ray Wilson on the corner of Barking Road.

West Ham's owners have stated recently that the move to the Olympic Stadium will mean cheaper tickets for fans but there was no such generosity on show today as the club were charging £55 for what is effectively a meaningless end of season game, despite some people billing the game as the UEFA Fair Play play off.

Everton players though chipped in to reduce the price by £10 for the travelling Evertonians. It is a sad indictment of modern football that fans are happy to only be paying £45. Still a tenner is a tenner so thank you Everton.

Most pubs around the ground are home fans only so it was a twenty minute walk down the Barking Road to a Wetherspoons to get oneself a pint. Or two.

The game itself was typical end of season stuff but a 94th minute winner from Romelu Lukaku made the trip down to London worthwhile. Stewart Downing (62) gave the Hammers the lead before Leon Osman levelled things up (68) with a superb turn and volley.

With the game petering out to a draw, which would have been a fair result, an Aiden McGeady cross was met by Lukaku to bag the three points for The Toffees. Depending on your point of view on the Europa League, whether you think it's a good competition or not, Everton picked up up four yellow cards today which will probably mean next season will not begin on 2nd July.

 

No trip to the east end would be complete
without some pie and mash!

EVERTON (Goodison Park)

FA PREMIER LEAGUE, EVERTON 2-0 WEST HAM UNITED, ATTENDANCE: 39,475

Well what a week it's been at Goodison Park as the club bids farewell to David Moyes after 11 years as Manager.

The Manager went out on a high after comfortably seeing off the Hammers courtesy of two Kevin Mirallas goals. The first goal was a great team effort whilst the second was a deflected shot. Everton should have scored plenty more but a combination of last ditch tackles, great saves and bad misses kept the scoreline down.




Kevin Mirallas (11) shoots at goal



Atmosphere was fantastic, It was a great team performance but as like every summer it is always a nervous time for Evertonians as we wait to see who will be still here come August. Speculation is already rife as to who is supposedly leaving, hopefully the departure of Moyes will not mean the break up of the team.

,

                  Could this be the last time we see these two in a blue shirt?

As well as Moyes leaving, it was also Phil Neville's Goodison swansong after being released by the club, though he didn't play today due to injury. In fact Neville hasn't played for the club since his suicidal back pass in the Wigan FA Cup game, when he was substituted at the interval.

I hoped that wasn't his last action in a blue shirt, but it looks like that is going to be the case, but the reception afforded to him yesterday showed that the Goodision crowd have appreciated his efforts over the past eight years. He always gave 100% and whenever he spoke, he always had nothing but high praise for the club and "got" what it meant to be a blue.

Another stalwart of the Moyes era also put in appearance to say a belated farewell to the fans, as Tim Cahill flew in from New York, despite playing for The Red Bulls the previous evening, to join in the occasion.

Not many players in the modern game have the commitment, will to win and sheer force of personality that Tim Cahill possessed and he was always superb in a blue shirt. Time waits for no man, but It was a genuinely sad day when he left last summer. He will always be one of my all time favourite Everton players.

Which brings me to David Moyes. There was always an air of inevitability that he would replace Taggart in the Man Ure hot seat when the moment arose, so it was no real shock when Moyes was appointed last Thursday.

It's a strange one for me as I have never been a huge fan of Moyes but I am fully appreciative of what he has done for Everton over the last decade, dragging us from perennial relegation candidates to regular top half finishes on a budget that was mid-table at best.

After the reign of the Blessed Walter, the bar was set pretty low so there was really only one way up. The way Moyes did it wasn't particularly eye catching at first, but I suppose you had to be pragmatic with what you had at your disposal. However, after four years of watching Moyes "get 1-0 up and defend it" type of football (amongst other reasons) it was too much for me and that is where I bailed out as a season ticket holder.



Last time in the 'home' dugout for
David Moyes

In fairness though, as the team improved over the following seasons some of the football played was superb but there was always a sense that those negative thoughts were never far away in Moyes mind. When it really mattered, when we were on the fringes of kicking on, we always seemed to fall short. There has always been the frustration with some of his negative tactics and team selections, one up front at home against "lesser" opposition or his appalling record away from home against the "Sky four". You can only blame the lack of funds so far and I think Moyes has to take some of the blame, last season's loss to the RS at Wembley being the nadir as far as I was concerned.





Another end of an era:
Today was also the last
paper issue of WSAG.
This fanzine had been
regular reading all my
adult life

Despite no silverware to show for his reign, even I cant argue with the regular top 6 or 7 finishes on a shoestring budget and there is no doubt he has left the club in a better position than when he arrived and the appreciation he got during today's game (however, the Gwladys Street did drop a wee reminder of the rivalry as the classic "Oh Manchester..." was belted out with gusto) and on the lap of honour was well deserved.





Who will follow in Moyes footsteps, well who knows, none of the bookies favourites whet the appetite, but make no mistake he will be taking over a fantastic club. We are Everton. Onwards and Upwards.



David Moyes receives a guard of honour at the end of the game,
as well as rapturous applause



Another stalwart of the Moyes era Tim Cahill flew in to say goodbye,
after playing for New York Red Bulls the previous evening



This will have to be removed by August!!


There have been plenty of highs and lows over the last 11 years, but based on games I went to (hence no mentions of regularly tossing those phonies from Citeh) here are my Five most memorable Moyes games....

1. 20/04/05 Manchester United (home) 1-0. Goodison was rocking as Big Dunc terrorised Rio Ferdinand as the Blues recorded a great win to all but seal a top four finish.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=586JDNl_pv0

2.12/03/08 Fiorentina (home) 2-0. After a dreadful away leg which left us 0-2 down, the atmosphere at Goodison was electric as the Blues levelled the aggregate score before losing on penalties.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yghfGTKNYdE

3.08/11/07 Nuremburg (away) 2-0. My first ever European trip and I along with 6,000 blues travelled to Germany to witness a blue victory. I will always be grateful for that chance to travel abroad.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hznYtrlweXU 

4.19/04/09 Manchester United (Wembley) 0-0. My first trip to the new Wembley and Everton reach the final with a 4-2 win on penalties.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JSynnf-0ZQ

5.11/12/04 Liverpool (home) 1-0. The famous Carsley Derby. What a great day!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cNt76G4mIQ