That Europa cup thingy

You can get the game on here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGz6JnaP7U4

cheers... I found the youtube link

looks a lot like a practice match being played in front of 35,000 people...

listening to the comms on BBC Radio London, which is about 20 seconds or so behind the youtube link

decent goals... was hoping we'd be four up by now... but it's all going according to plan so far...

Loads of moaning already on social media and other sites FFS half this team are kids and I will say again and again , our U21 like a lot of other teams are no better than league 2 standard, the days of the old West Ham academy are no longer there

for the side out there 2-0 about right at HT

comms on Radio London saying the crowd is being very respectful and understanding and not getting on the team - so it's mainly the internet trolls having a go...

but like the comms also said, we finished the season very poorly and aren't playing much better against a kinda shitty side... but with the team we have out there it's not surprising... but the result is all that's important.

We're trying set moves, we're playing at a high tempo to tire them out, the kids look promising. Only downers are lobbed rather than fired final balls and Randolph a bit iffy on the back passes

Lee looking a lot trimmer than when he played at the Camrose

25000 watching online

From what I saw, I'm happy...

Ab Fab support..  

I watched most if the game on Youtube and I thought we played pretty well. Zarate, Jarvis and Amalfitano all put in a shift and moved the ball round well. Obviously Sakho got his couple of goals. Oxford, Cullen and Lee all looked pretty confident and had chances to score. I would say that's a great start to the campaign and a good pre-season work out. Lusitanos are not going to score 4 so that's job done and into the next round with no injuries and some youngsters having had a game. I really wonder what some people expect.

Brief report as it is late !!

Randolph - just hope Adrian doesn't get injured. Can't kick. Came for two crosses second half and got nowhere near either of them
Page - very impressed with this left back. Comfortable on the ball. Got forward well and put some great crosses in. Didn't have much to do in the way of defending so can't judge him on that. Never out of position though
Burke - Solid at centre back. Went to right back when JOB went off and didn't look out of place
Tomkins - superb. Never put a foot wrong. Looked the part for the whole 90 minutes
O'Brien - played very well and got forward when he could. Solid
Oxford - is NOT a holding midfield player. Poor distribution, caught in possession far too often. Booked for a lunge after an awful first touch. Felt for him and was pleased when he was moved to centre back. Looked accomplished there
Poyet - a younger version of Noble. Needs to move the ball much quicker
Amalfitano - when he got involved (particularly with Zarate and Sakho) he looks a class act. An outrageous shot from just inside their half forced their keeper into a good save.
Zarate - tries to do too much and often ran down blind alleys. Having said that some of his turns and runs were very good. Superb cross for Sakho's opening goal
Jarvis - started brightly, putting in some great crosses. Flatters to deceive mostly though. Frustrating player
Sakho - full of energy and worked hard. Missed a sitter of a header from a great JOB cross but made up for it a few minutes later. Was in the right place for his second too

Subs: Josh Cullen (for Joey O'Brien). Diminutive central midfield player who is comfortable in possession, rarely gives the ball away. Likes running at defences and had two good shots - one of which rattled the crossbar
Elliot Lee - (for Diafra Sakho) - He has good movement off the ball and makes some runs into good positions. Had a couple of chances and should have scored
Parfait-Williams - wasn't on for long. Looks talented though

agree Rich and jiggs , a full first team would have resulted in a cricket score , youngsters held their own to about their level, first team boys certainly made a big difference, big for young Reece the lad does look good, way above his 16 yrs
Out of all our kids he looks like the one that can step up a level , Need Slaven to develop him to take over the ageing Ginger Pele

Campo wrote:agree Rich and jiggs , a full first team would have resulted in a cricket score , youngsters held their own to about their level, first team boys certainly made a big difference, big  for young Reece the lad does look good, way above his 16 yrs
Out of all our kids he looks like the one that can step up a level , Need Slaven to develop him to take over the ageing Ginger Pele

From what I saw Reece Burke, Josh Cullen and Lewis Page can do that also. Reece Burke already has !

After looking at Tonys post on my grainy feed I may have been mistaking oxford for Burke the one I was looking at was in the back 4

Campo wrote:After looking at Tonys post on my grainy feed I may have been mistaking oxford for Burke the one I was looking at was in the back 4

 Reece Burke is about 6ft 2ins and white. Reece Oxford is about 6ft and black. Easy to get them mixed up dude !

good result. job done.

some of the youngsters look pretty ok

good to see SAhko getting in the goals again.

nice to see Morgan get a game and Karate too

hopefully Bilic can continue the good work when he gets his hands on them all.

breaking news is we're about to sign Song on a permanent - I hope it's the Song form the first half of the season.

RichB wrote:I watched most if the game on Youtube and I thought we played pretty well. Zarate, Jarvis and Amalfitano all put in a shift and moved the ball round well. Obviously Sakho got his couple of goals. Oxford, Cullen and Lee all looked pretty confident and had chances to score. I would say that's a great start to the campaign and a good pre-season work out.  Lusitanos are not going to score 4 so that's job done and into the next round with no injuries and  some youngsters having had a game.  I really wonder what some people expect.

Nice summary and exactly my thoughts. I've not seen too many such trolls to be honest

Tony P wrote:

Campo wrote:After looking at Tonys post on my grainy feed I may have been mistaking oxford for Burke the one I was looking at was in the back 4

 Reece Burke is about 6ft 2ins and white. Reece Oxford is about 6ft and black. Easy to get them mixed up dude !

video was that grainy, I could only make out Poyet due to his barnet

"Slaven Bilic showed a lack of respect by not being on the bench," said the Lusitanos coach Xavi Roura, who watched his side lose 3-0 at West Ham. The Hammers had academy boss Terry Westley in charge instead of new manager Bilic, who watched from the stands. (Sky Sports)

Should be more than enough I suppose, just would have liked to go there with 'em already dead and buried and gravestone erected. ( Note to self: -TRY to be more optimistic this season )
Fair point made about standards of our U21s, such an enormous step up to the first team squad nowadays. The only possible development route for most seems to be loans to lower- League teams, just as well because that's where most will end up. - Anyway, no one fupped up - COYI!!

Peeps will say the opposition were poor but it was still a good work out for the team.

It was great to see the back four knocking the ball around on the floor from the start to the end rather than lumping it up to no one as quick as possible.

Another thing evident was that when we had free kicks on the half way line everyone didn't pile in the box waiting for it to be thrown in there, it was played short as quick as possible.

Really enjoyed the game after not making a game for the last 2 years.

Hoping last night was a sign of things to come.

Back fours knocking the ball about on the floor makes me nervous. And frustrated. Uness you are oozng class I'd rather it away from our goal as soon as possible (not hoofing it but good expedition of the ball and quickly. A good midfield will dictate the tempo of a game (or should)

JulianDicksLeftKnee wrote:Back fours knocking the ball about on the floor makes me nervous. And frustrated. Uness you are oozng class I'd rather it away from our goal as soon as possible (not hoofing it but good expedition of the ball and quickly. A good midfield will dictate the tempo of a game (or should)

 and therein lies the problem that we had last season and - if Bilic picks on sentiment and not ability - we will have again this

Going by what we have at the moment I would say our midfield would be Noble,Downing,Payet,Song*Kouyate

Obiang if we don't get Song again

Arran H wrote:Going by what we have at the moment I would say our midfield would be Noble,Downing,Payet,Song*Kouyate

Obiang if we don't get Song again

 We don't need Noble in there if we have Obiang, Song and Kouyate IMO

I agree with Tony on that, Noble will have to up his game with the new players coming into the middle or will be a bench warmer