EXTRA TIME

Happy Start into New Year for Hammers and Moyes

David Moyes – a manager who seems nobody wanted … But his West Ham return got off to the best possible start as captain Mark Noble with two goals helped his side to an emphatic 4-0 victory over Bournemouth.

The owners didn’t reckon David Moyes to be good enough to take the Club “to the next level” just 18 months ago, and refused to extend his short term contract after he had led West Ham to Premier League safety at the end of the 2017-18 season. But on Sunday they reappointed the Scotsman to replace the sacked Manuel Pellegrini in order to stop West Ham’s free fall under a manager who had not seemed capable anymore to turn around West Ham’s season.

And in Moyes’s first game the fans saw quite a different kind of West Ham: though sticking by and large with the players who had performed so poorly under Manuel Pellegrini, the team looked far better organised and much happier to be playing under the new manager. After a slow start Captain Mark Noble opened the scoring inside 20 minutes with the help of a deflection. The skipper geed up the crowd as the match got back under way, signalling to them to ramp up the volume, and they did exactly that when Sebastien Haller‘s sensational bicycle kick doubled the Hammers’ lead just 7 minutes later.

Noble scored his second in the 35th minute from the penalty spot after being brought down by Harry Wilson, before Felipe Anderson, scoring hits first goal since April, completed the rout in the second half.

The emphatic victory over a completely out-of-form Cherries team was West Ham’s first win at home for more than three months, their last victory at the London Stadium being the 2-0 over Manchester United on September 22.

The fans in the London Stadium enjoyed “the best atmosphere in a long time”, appreciating that “every single player put in a shift, fighting for every ball and pressing” as @hollseey put it on twitter.

This perfect start for Moyes’s second spell at the east London Club lifts them out of the relegation zone, with Bournemouth slipping down the Premier League table into 18th.

The 4-0 is West Ham’s biggest Premier League win since November 2007, when they beat Derby 5-0 at Pride Park. It’s the Hammers’ biggest home win in the competition since September 2005 (4-0 v Aston Villa).

The Hammers’ next games will see them travel to Gillingham in the third round of the FA Cup on Sunday (18:16 GMT), followed by a league trip to Sheffield United next Friday (20:00 GMT).

-> Watch West Ham’s goals here!

January 1, 2020 at 9:26 pm Leave a comment

Happy New Year 2020

Psalm 1

Blessed is the one
who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers,
but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
and who meditates on his law day and night.
That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
whatever they do prospers.

Not so the wicked!
They are like chaff
that the wind blows away.
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.

“The key to lasting – and ultimately eternal – fruitfulness and vitality lies in your relationship with God. As you seek to follow ‘the way of the righteous’, you are assured that the Lord himself will watch over you (v.6).

“Lord, thank you for your wonderful promises as I resolve to make a regular habit of delighting in your word and meditating on it.”

“Bible in one year” by Nicky Gumbel, HTB

January 1, 2020 at 4:45 pm Leave a comment