IF SOMEONE WINS £1 MILLION OR EVEN £21 million, studies have shown that they adapt quickly. A year later they believe they have not got enough money. With fans of West Ham United, familiarisation happens even faster. Long gone are the days when they might feel elation at their comfortable position in the Barclays Premiership. Long gone, too, is delight at playing in the fourth round of the FA Cup.
A smaller than average crowd of 23,700 turned up to see a team led by a manager who did not field a weakened side and who would love a Cup run. At the final whistle the cheers were muted. None of this — the attractive football, the ability to look more ambitious than most newly promoted teams have ever done — was predicted, and yet the fans have adapted to it with ease. They even found time to jeer. The butt of their criticism was Christian Dailly, who filled in at right back in place of Tomas Repka, who has joined Sparta Prague.
“The crowd can get a bit edgy about Christian,” Alan Pardew, the West Ham manager, said. “I don’t know why, because he’s been terrific for us and terrific for me. In fact I don’t think I’d be standing here if it wasn’t for Christian Dailly, because when I first came here he was my biggest ally. I was coming into a club that was in a massive turmoil and there was a lot of bad feeling. And if you don’t get the senior players to support you, you are in big trouble. At that time he was rock solid with me and I’ll never, ever be able to repay him for that.”
Dailly at least received some appreciation after treatment for a cut on his face, but as Pardew said: “It is a horrible, horrible feeling when your own fans are not with you.”
Watching it all was Dean Ashton, signed for £7.25 million from Norwich City and no doubt wondering why Pardew needed to spend so much on a striker when West Ham hardly struggle to score goals. Ashton has a groin injury but is not guaranteed to start when he is fit. “I pick my best team at the minute,” Pardew said. “The figures (paid for a player) go out the window. I’m afraid he hasn’t shown me anything yet because he hasn’t had a chance and he might have to wait for his chance.”
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From the stands, Ashton saw lovely goals, a scrappy goal, a controversial goal and an own goal. Rovers took the lead after only 27 seconds through David Bentley. For half an hour the visiting team looked comfortable, but then Zurab Khizanishvili was judged to have handled and Teddy Sheringham chipped the goalkeeper with a cheeky penalty. The West Ham forward had taken a penalty in a midweek training tournament and smashed it into the corner, so he obviously likes to keep even his team-mates guessing. Pardew admitted that Tottenham Hotspur had attempted to lure Sheringham back to White Hart Lane. “The position with Teddy is he can pass on that expertise to ones we’ve got and I want to keep him here as long as possible,” he said.
Matthew Etherington made it 2-1, Shaka Hislop produced two fine saves and then Khizanishvili, having a hapless week after being found guilty of a handball against Manchester United on Wednesday, scored an own goal.
The most assured strike of the afternoon came from Blackburn when a back-heel by Morten Gamst Pedersen set up Lucas Neill. And then the floodlights above Hislop’s head failed. “I’m not an electrician, even though I’m called Sparky,” Mark Hughes, the Blackburn manager, said. “I was hoping they’d stay off.”
But the light returned just in time, once Bobby Zamora had sealed the win, for the fans to see the sort of finale they obviously have come to expect. “When the lights went out and we were winning, the lads were thinking, ‘we don’t want to play this again’. That would have killed us,” Zamora said. The 25-year-old played with the zest you might expect from a striker who knows his place is under threat and was rewarded with his first home goal this season.
Hughes was left counting the cost of “a really emotional week”. His side have the chance to gain revenge for defeat in the semi- final of the Carling Cup on Wednesday, when Sir Alex Ferguson’s side visit Ewood Park. “I like the timing of the United game,” Hughes said. “Last Wednesday we had more possession than them, more passes, higher energy levels shown and, all round, beat them in most things apart from the scoreline.”
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West Ham United (4-4-2): S Hislop — C Dailly, A Ferdinand, D Gabbidon, P Konchesky — Y Benayoun (sub: C Fletcher, 85min), H Mullins, N Reo-Coker, M Etherington — R Zamora (sub: Y Katan, 78), E Sheringham (sub: M Harewood, 72). Substitutes not used: S Bywater, S Newton. Booked: Dailly
Blackburn Rovers (4-4-2): B Friedel — L Neil, Z Khizanishvili, A Todd, M Gray — S Reid, R Savage, A Mokoena (sub: Tugay Kerimoglu, 74), M G Pedersen — S Kuqi (sub: B Emerton, 60), D Bentley (sub: J Johnson, 60). Substitutes not used: P Enckelman, R Nelsen
Referee: M Atkinson