Abdoulaye Faye has come out and said that tension at Upton Park is to blame for our shaky home form. The Senegalese centre half said that the ground was very quiet for large portions of the Watford game causing tension among the players. It seems to me like a bit of a paradox; when the players are under performing the crowd get frustrated leading to tension and, ultimately, poor results therefore frustrating the fans further.
So the lesson here is that we need to get behind the players 110% through thick and thin which is what we're usually known for down in the East End, so why is it so different this season? We're 2nd in the league - top if we win our game in hand which thankfully is away! - and we've been more consistent this season than any other season in my lifetime. It must be something to do with the fact that even though our home form isn't catastrophic, even when we win it's rarely pretty. We've had ONE memorable home performance this season which came against Blackpool who, for some reason, just can't play against us.
Other than the Blackpool game and maybe the Derby game, our home performances have been awful as we needed a 5th minute header from the prolific Papa Bouba Diop to see off Barnsley, an early penalty to beat Peterborough and TWO borderline hand ball penalty decisions to overcome Nottingham Forest. These results, along with the late goals conceded against Leeds, Cardiff, Ipswich, Aldershot in the cup and the let off against Pompey in the 4-3 victory, all lead to one thing; consistent bad performances at home. This isn't something we're used to at West Ham, we're used to a buzzing atmosphere, full commitment from the fans and Upton Park traditionally being a fortress. As I said before, our home form will be a major factor on whether or not we stay up next season - providing we GO up - because we will need to win our home games if we are to stay in the premier league so something must be done about this before the end of the season. So I say even if we don't get off to a great start on Saturday against Donny, get behind the team 100% as booing, grunting and negative feedback will cost us results, Abdoulaye Faye said so himself!
COME ON YOU IRONS!
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