SCR Altach vs WHUFC -- July 11th, 2019

heh heh heh... y'all thought you had rid of me for the summer... well not so fast mateys...

It's pre-season shenanigans and we had a game today. Thanks to the wonders of the internet and a VPN I got to watch some of it but thanks to international time differences and forgetting to turn the VPN on I managed to miss an hour of the game and the final goal...

something like a million substitutions... bunch of players I've never heard of and we ran out 2-3 winners...

Here's the line-up from the offish...

The West Ham United manager hands debut to summer signing Roberto in goal, with a back four of Ryan Fredericks, Issa Diop, Angelo Ogbonna and Ben Johnson in front of the Spaniard.

The midfield is comprised of Carlos Sanchez, Manuel Lanzini and captain Mark Noble, with Robert Snodgrass and Felipe Anderson supporting Michail Antonio in attack.

You can expect plenty of substitutions from Pellegrini throughout the course of the game, 31 players out here in Austria!

However, Lukasz Fabianski will not feature as he only returned to training on Monday, while Aaron Cresswell is left out as a precaution. Young goalkeeper Krisztian Hegyi is the third player who will not be involved this evening.

West Ham United: Roberto, Fredericks, Diop, Ogbonna, Johnson, Sanchez, Noble (c), Lanzini, Snodgrass, Felipe Anderson, Antonio

Subs: Martin (GK), Anang (GK), Zabaleta, Byram, Oxford, Reid, Rice, Obiang, Wilshere, Cullen, Powell, Browne, Holland, Yarmolenko, Diangana, Chicharito, Hugill


Difficult to really draw too many conclusions from a game like this. Yarmalenko looked like he was trying but the comms said he wasn't having a good day. Diangana looked very lightweight but the comms said he was having a good day - so I guess you get to draw your own conclusions and all evidence is totally subjective.

We won - which is nice. Sometimes we win all our games n pre-season and then don't win any during the actual competitive part of the year... sometimes we do terribly in pre-season and then go on to have a good season... so again... who knows.

We're off to China next... so jet lag will have a part to play and it'll be nice to meet up with Arnie in his new digs...

Looks like Sanchez scored first off an assist from Snoddy

Antonio got the 2nd from an assist by Noble

Diop scored the third and decisive

anyways... gonna keep me fingers crossed that there's a livestream of next week's game - which there should be as we're laying Man Citeh.

Hope you're having a good summer

Who said that?

I don`t get carried away with Pre-season games as it`s all about getting the fitness up and a chance for new players to bed in etc.

Watched the highlights and we looked alright and come away with no Injuries which is nice as always. Good to see Reid and Yarmelenko back playing after long term injuries also good to see some of the younger players get a chance as well. Hopefully get to see more of this Johnson kid this season.

Look forward to seeing Fornals in Claret and Blue after the China Trip.