What a season this is turning out to be! I said before the end of the season that even though we looked like missing out on the top 2 I was full of confidence for the play-offs because we were playing extremely well as the season drew to close, and the mighty hammers aren't disappointing are they!?
I thought we'd either sit back for most of the game and not take too many chances having done more than half the job in Wales or that we'd be a bit nervy at the start of the game. How wrong was I? We were brilliant from start to finish and got off to a flier when Kevin Nolan popped up with possibly the most important tap in he'll ever score shortly after Cardiff had a half hearted penalty appeal turned down.
Just minutes later Gary O'Neil nearly added a brilliant second when his improvised volley hit the crossbar and went behind. Ricardo Vaz Te did make it 2 shortly before half time though when he hammered past Marshall in the Cardiff goal following an incisive through ball from Guy Demel.
The atmosphere was rocking from start to finish with 'Que sera sera' ringing around Upton Park as early as Kevin Nolan's opener in the 15th minute. In the second half it looked like the aim was to coast to the final whistle and not risk injury to key players for what was an almost guaranteed trip to Wembley. Obviously no one told Nicky Maynard, who replaced the brilliant Carlton Cole, as he fired into the top corner from 18 yards after Lansbury brilliantly sent him through on goal on the stroke of the 90 minute mark.
Wembley will be rocking on 19th May when we will face either Blackpool or Birmingham, who play their second leg at St. Andrews on Wednesday with the Seasiders leading 1-0 from the first leg thanks to a deflected effort from Matt Ince. I would much rather play Blackpool in the final because we turned them over both home and away - with the 4-1 victory at Bloomfield Road being voted our performance of the season.
However, if we are to face Birmingham the atmosphere will be a strange one and may even be a bit fiery given that David Gold and David Sullivan have a lot of history with the second city club.
We're now just 90 minutes away from a return to the Premier League and with 6 wins and 2 draws in our last 8 games we will surely be favourites regardless of who we face at the national stadium.
COME ON YOU IRONS!
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