by Hampshire Royal »
01 Apr 2012 11:02
I've been staying on the Isle of Dogs for the best part of a year, and have taken the opportunity to see us at Crystal Palace, Millwall and West Ham. Living where I do, I've got to know quite a few West Ham fans and I find them, on the whole, to be no different to fans of any club. They are passionate and blinkered. The really sad thing about them is that they have unrealistic expectations about their position in English football, seeing as how none of them were born when West Ham were good (a bit like Liverpool fans). Having said that, the ones I know have all said that if we go up and they don't (if??) it will be because we deserve it and they don't. Their real problem is that they have average players who are on PL wages. As well as boosting expectations, this also makes ticket prices stupidly high. I paid £41 to sit in the Alpari stand!!! It was at the W Ham fans 'end' and I had a good view . I could see that the penalty was nailed on, and that Hunt wasn't offside. I could also see that the ball was definitely played out before our fifth 'goal'. I was expecting to be surrounded by W Ham fans, but the three or four rows in front of us were empty.
As for the game, I can't really say much more than has already been said. I thought that we were going to be overrun with the way the game started. We were bad and they were good. The best I hoped for during the first half-hour was a draw. When we went in at half-time 2-1 up, I knew we were going to win. Even when their second went in, I just knew it!!
The Reading fans were immense and the noise coming from that end of the ground was as good as I've heard from any away fans. Even when we were losing, we still managed to sing a bit. It was better when we were ahead, of course!! The difference between the teams was that we looked like we really wanted it, whereas W Ham never looked up for it after they went behind. W Ham were also very dirty and cynical in the way they tried to intimidate Reading. Kebe took a lot of stick, as did Roberts, but they just got on with the game. For this reason, I wish that the penalty hadn't been given and Kebe's goal had stood.