Hucks in danger

[irishcanary 0]

Is it just me or is anyone else worried that West Ham''s game plan is to hurt Huckerby early on.

[DumbleDelia is Magic 0]

I agree it is a worry. I''d like to think that West Ham would be honest and professional enough not to use such tactics, but hey- This is football. Horlock has obviously identified Huckerby as the chief threat from his Man City days and I''m sure will have told pardew exactly how to combat his pace. My biggest worry would be Christian Dailly. We''ve all seen the damage that man can do.....

[Cobain18 0]

ill be honest wit u, i think huckerby is much too experienced, clever and quick to get injured like that, if they try they''ll cause themselves a disadvantage cos if they concentrate too much on that they cant be concentrating enough on playin football

[a1canary 0]

As Eric Black said after the Coventry game - the only thing you can combat pace with is pace. They''ll be looking to put one of their pacier defenders (if they have any) on him. Having said that, we don''t have much in the way of pace at the back either to combat Harewood and Zamora!
Reckon we''ll see at least 5 goals in the match...

[Neilson 6 0]

I think that idiot (I have to be polite due to monitoring!!!) Repka is more of a worry. Do you remember Upton Park earlier in the season when he decided to hack down hucks on the touchline!!

[Glenn Foy 0]

I wud agree with that hucks was out for 2 games wen he got injured, and he had to have a pain killin injection to play in the sunderland game. Mind you, if we get a result it will be down to huckerby, there (west hams) attack is somethimes impossible to stop, even from the team with the best defensive record in the league!!!!

[Dr. Jonathan Zizmor 0]

Huckerby will be looking for revenge on Repka, maybe by getting him sent off nice and early. Either that or get Iwan to flatten him.

[MasterNagus 0]

This all kind of winds me up I''m afraid guys.

Not so much the talk of the Hammers trying to ''do'' Hucks - that is a legitimate worry but I don''t think he''s under any more threat than he was at Highfield Rd, the Bescot, or Millmoor. It''s the nature of football that teams try to quieten the the most threatening players. I bet Malky won''t shed a tear if he gets in a good ''reducer'' on Harewood in the first ten minutes. It cuts both ways.

No, what gets my goat, is people going on about how big the threat and danger is from any team we play. Yes, West Ham have some quality, yes, they will be hard to beat. But you know what? We''re pretty damn good as well. Don''t you think Hammers fans are just as worried about Hucks and co up front and having to break down a mean defence as we are about facing them.

With all said and done, we are going to into the final months of the season and it''s City five points clear, NOT West Ham. That says something. Also, we''ve been to their place already and got a deserved point - it''s only 11 First Division footballers in their side, not Real bloody Madrid.

I''m not saying we are certain to win, or even draw on Saturday -it will be a tough game. Probably the hardest of the season so far (I say that every week!) All I am saying, is please let''s have a little more confidence and faith in the players and staff who have got us in this position in the first place

[Anderz 0]

Must admit, Repka is my biggest concern of all West Ham players, the guys a psycho in the sense that he makes Muscat look like a reasonable sane guy... Never liked the guy, even when he was playing for Fiorentina in Italy, looked a thug then and hasn''t done much to change my opinion since... Just hope that no rash (and deliberate) challenges cause injuries to the City boys, think they''re experienced enough to avoid putting themselves too far into Repka''s firing line... Should be a fine and entertaining match, a draw wouldn''t be the end of the world, but a win would be rather delicious... reckon there could be a single, late goal in this match...

F,F,F,FTBIY...

[First Wizard 0]

MasterNagus:

I have to be careful here, yes City have done really well this season, no doubt of it. But I don''t think they''re as good as you believe they are, there have been times, admit it, when we have been very fortunate this season. City are becoming over relient on one player, and West Ham know it!. Stop him and you stop City.

I really do believe their first objective will be to put Hucks out of the game, by fair means or foul, then what do we do? especially if its long term. Now if you had Harper out wide as well, that might be a different story, and compound their tactics a little bit, still I''m grattifide that you have so much blind faith in abundance, lets hope its not misplaced!.

[gazzathegreat 0]

hear hear

we can''t be doing much wrong to be 5 points clear, okay west ham have a good side, but shouldn''t really worry us too much

let them fret about hucks, he will have the measure of anything they put on him, he is the best player in this division and he plays for us

have confidence guys, we are going to win this league!!

[First Wizard 0]

Don''t count them until their hatched my dear Gazza. And I wish I had your confidence.

[Tumbleweed 106]

Every manager at this level prepares his team and tactics for the threats of the relevant opposition. I think West Ham will be extremely satisfied with a point tomorrow. Huckerby is our most obvious threat, but their focussing and worrying about him might just let in McVeigh, Jim B and Damien into any holes created by Darren. Even if marked to kingdon come Darren can still create space for others and his passing and crossing will always cause problems.

I reckon they will play a very tight game tomorrow. Perhaps even a player in the holding position in front of the centre backs. They will play deep, try to suck us in and keep Huckerby starved of space. Then they will try to nick a win if they can by trying to catch us on the break and throw everybody forward at set pieces.

I have not done so well yet in my predictions on this Board''s fantasy league, but I don''t think there will be a goal fest. Avoiding defeat will be OK for both teams tomorrow and I think that will be reflected in a little tension and it could be quite scrappy.

I hope I''m wrong and we win by 5. But I would also grab a 1-1 or a 0-0.

[fishbulbman 0]

Certainly the hammer''s fans i know reckon Repka is primed to take out Huckerby asap in the match. If he does, hopefully we''ll get a penalty out of it first. Personally as someone said above, Huck''ll be a bit too quick for him.

[eggy 0]

As a Hammer visiting your site i must say that most Hammers no that Mullins will be put on Huckerby as he is our main player in quieting opposition players this was shown last week by him playing Left Back to counteract Malbranque (a player in a diffrent class to all in Div 1).
The main fear for all west ham fans is set pieces this is where we are a liability and have been prone to concede stupid goals (mainly due to Dailly).
However when we get the ball down on floor there are very few teams in the country that can match us, with Carrick returning to form, & Reo Coker starting superbly.
This is where I think that we will have a distinct advantage when teams try & attack us we just pick them off and beat them on the counter attack (proved by only 3 away defeats in the leauge in 13 months)

[susie b 0]

I don''t know if anyone else out there has done the same as me but I recently made a New Year''s resolution to stop worrying about the things I can do absolutely nothing about. (This will apply to me personally as well as footie-related things). Since I made the promise AFTER the Bradford game - (as I spent the whole week before thinking about bananaskins and bogey teams, and we all know what happened) - I have enjoyed things so much more. The differences have included a) not screaming at RW''s commentary, but calmly repeating ''FOCUS, FOCUS'' when we are under pressure - much better for the blood pressure, b) visualising an impenetrable screen across the front of our goal whenever the oppo are on the attack - quite comforting really, and c) watching every second in a positive frame of mind as the action unfolds in front of me - means I''m getting more of my money''s worth than when I used to hide at times behind my hands or various items of clothing!
Part of my new attitude means that I have faith in Worthy to pick the best 11 + 5 he believes can do the job on the day; I trust that the individuals who go out there will know exactly what is expected of them and will try their utmost to succeed; I believe that everyone in ''the shirt'' will be fully aware of what others may or may not try to do in order to stop us from winning. That doesn''t mean that I wouldn''t be disgusted and sickened to see one of our''s deliberately taken out by anyone else, but I am thinking back to when Millwall came here last year and, in front of our home fans, Muscat didn''t dare touch Hucks. In fact he was a bit of a pussycat that day. Anyway, worrying about it isn''t going to prevent it from happening if it''s going to...nor will it serve any purpose if it doesn''t happen at all! (Does that make sense? Several hours on the computer today have rather done my head in).

[ca 1]

It makes perfect sense susie b and thats what we should all do stay positive,keep focussed and put our trust in the players,they wont let us down,promise!
Great post by the way.

[fishbulbman 0]

susie b - that''s one of the best posts on any board i''ve read in a long time. thx :)

[Donny Curston 0]

I think Dazzer will be to quick for the West Ham boys but I think he will have to be careful as we have so many big matches coming up in a very short space of time and to lose either though injury or suspendsion would be a crule and bitter blow to the course, but his passion will hopefully see us though,and I hope that after the Ipswich game we can see the light at the end of the tunnell