Tired Hammers left looking Baggie!!

Saturday afternoonn's early cup tie  between West Brom and West Ham came (according to Sam, Allardyce) a little too soon for the Hammers.

Allardyce bemoaned the fact that his East London boys were feeling the affects of a gruelling run of fixtures and fatigue was blamed for the Iron's lacklustre performance.

Anyone who has read any of my other blogs about football will know my feelings on managers and players blaming results and poor performances on tiredness.   I can't stand it.  At the end of the day everyone is in the same boat including Saturday's opponents, who managed to win a game by 4 goals to 0.  Yes West Ham may have had injury problems but so does everyone else.

Sam Allardyce should know better as he played football in the 70's when the top flight had 24 teams battling it out, the pitches were shit and the squads consisted of less then 20 players.  Playing a full season with just about 16 players including two games a week and cup competitions with their replays that went on and on until a result was the norm and there was never a word said about it.

If your players really are tired and fatigued after a couple of hard matches in a week then maybe these privileged players aren't the complete athletes we are led to believe they are.

I personally think Big Sam is just making excuses for his teams less than convincing performance, if your players can't lift themselves for a chance of getting to a quarter finals of the FA cup then sorry but they do not deserve to be there, end of.

What's up Sam?  Bit tired?

The Baggies started this game on the front foot and other than maybe a 15 minute spell when Morgan Amalfitano was introduced for the Hammers in the second half completely dominated this game, the 4-0 scoreline didn't flatter them.

Although Amalfitano's introduction seemed to make a difference to West Ham his appearance came too late as the Hammers brought him on just after going 3-0 down.  Amalfitano only ended up playing for ten minutes as he was sent off in the 70th for a straight red for lashing out at Chris Brunt.

Morgan went from Amalfitano to Ralph Amalphitano.

Two goals from in form striker Brown Ideye and a one a piece from James Morrison and Saido Berahino was enough for the Baggies to secure a Quarter final place and a derby tie with Aston Villa at Villa Park, and enough for the travelling 5,500 Hammers fans to be leaving the Hawthorns thinking about what might have been.

It maybe the end of the road for the Irons is this years FA cup and for any other silverware this year but for the Baggies it is onwards and upwards.

The FA cup glory hunt continues to roll along and from this moment onwards I become a West Bromwich Albion fan.

This time around I feel a bit like Sam Beckett in Quantum Leap, after no sooner have I jumped into my former self and failing to change history to how I want it, then I am thrown into another underdogs life where I have to hope they are successful.  Just like Sam always does though I won't let my own feelings cloud my judgement and I will deal with the task in hand.

Will my next leap be the leap home?

So long West Ham and thanks for being part of my glory hunt albeit an all too brief part.  Good luck for the rest of the season, especially this weekend against Spurs.

Now into my next team.

Up the Baggies!!

Boing, Boing you Baggies!!