The morning after our shattering exit from the FA Cup felt more like the end of the world, didn’t it? A glimmer of light and hope at the end of a season of horrors was snatched from us.
Some defeats are far worse than others to swallow and the penalty shoot-out disaster at Leeds’ hands was right up there at the top of the pain threshold. ‘Why always us?’, it screamed.
We’d had that fleeting prospect of Wembley, and even Europe, dangled in front of us. Beat Leeds, get a fluke semi-final draw avoiding the likes of Chelsea and Manchester City and the Europa League was beckoning. Sure you all remember the Europa League, even if it was four managers ago!
Since then we have regularly pressed the self-destruct button during almost three years since David Moyes was in charge and we were European champions.
And I really don’t want to hear any more nonsense from the grifters amongst our online fans sites over the reasons for Moyes’ departure. The latest is that he "lost it" after Alan Irvine’s departure. And Moyes’ success at Everton-they are eighth—is due to being reunited with his pal.
That’s always forgetting that Irvine was still on the payroll when Moyes left, scouting and watching players and opponents. We all should know by now it was the rubbish contract Moyes was offered that removed him from transfers, and we know that Moyes would never have signed it. Then David Sullivan withdrew the deal and that was the last we heard about it.
Some folk need to live with all that and stop spreading nonsense every time Everton win a match.
Moyes will probably be in Europe next season and West Ham won’t. That fleeting thought went out of the window on Sunday evening.
Such was the despair afterwards as the sickening defeat sunk in that a few friends were engaged in a lengthy debate over where this reverse figured in the long list of season, decade-changing calamities that West Ham seem to specialise in. We were in ‘why always us?‘ mode.
By the time we had dissected the many Cup nightmares of the past, and gone through the list of Stockport, Nottingham Forest, Wrexham, Hereford, Oxford, Birmingham City (the crowd invasion version), Newport, Tranmere, Luton etc some of us had lost the will to live.
A little earlier, we’d witnessed the greatest Easter Sunday resurrection in 2000 years - as some comedian out there put it.
The clock was on 93 minutes, we were 2-0 down and from somewhere we struck twice in injury time to force the extra half-hour and then the anguish of those penalties. Blimey, fans were even fighting to get back into the stadium to witness the comeback.
Plenty had left. One of my mates was on the Tube home when Matty Fernandes struck the first. I’m not going to criticise fans leaving early, there are plenty of reasons, most involving dreadful ,unreliable transport connections and the plague of stop/go boards.
But I have no issue with fans not being allowed back in. Crowd safety and some really horrific tragedies in the past when fans flood back into a stadium means I doubt you’d get back into any ground mob-handed. The dangers are obvious, on the concourse, on stairways and steps with fans moving in opposite directions. If you chose to leave, that’s the chance you take.
But this one hurt. Leeds were no great shakes, but we were miserably ineffective. Nuno Espirito Santo put out a side that made you blink in surprise. Injuries, fatigue from long-haul international fixtures and almost certainly a desire to protect players for Friday’s yet another must win game at home to Wolves.
However Nuno got to that starting line-up, it once again exposed the paucity , threadbare nature of our squad. Take out five, maybe six, senior experienced men and you are left with eight players on the bench under 22 , some of whom you would be too scared to throw into such a tension-packed cup tie.
The blame is easy. We are £104m in debt, have had one ‘fire sale’ last summer, will have another this year and we have shown a level of incompetence over transfers and squad construction these past three years that leaves situations like this as inevitable. Get below the first eleven and we just don’t compete.
Nuno wanted to rest Tomas Soucek, amongst others, but was forced into throwing the Czech into action in midfield. Jean-Clair Todibo and Dinos Mavropanos were both injured, the Greek on yet another concussion break picked up on international duty.
And Arron Wan-Bissaka, having played in the Congo’s World Cup play-off success against Jamaica in Mexico, was last heard off lost somewhere in Africa, after the country’s president organised an unauthorised celebration following World Cup qualification .
And that left Max Kilman, who conceded his customary penalty and looks absolutely devoid of any confidence and was constantly booed by our fans. Which never helps, does it?
Some are blaming Nuno for all-but ‘throwing’ the tie with avoiding relegation the main objective, while other want to see a strong side and momentum going into our final fraught league games.
An FA Cup semi-final at Wembley and, heaven forbid, a place in the final would surely have boosted confidence in every corner of our club. From the boardroom to those fans trying to kick down doors to get back into the ground.
But once again fans were questioning some Nuno decisions. Leeds had all five of their six subs on the pitch before extra time. We had just two and four in the extra half-hour, including again hooking Freddie Potts and Soungoutou Magassa at half time, once again they struggled against Premier League quality.
Meanwhile potential penalty takers Adama Traore, who had his best game for the club, and Taty Castellanos were taken off in extra-time.
Let’s now see if Cry Summerville will be risked against Wolves. It was a concern that the flying winger did not even figure on the bench.
And that leaves us with the one heart-warming part of the proceedings. Rookie ‘keeper Fin Herrick, the England Under 20 youngster, who has made quite a name for himself this season amidst our Under 21 side's various cup heroics.
With Alphonse Areola off injured, Herrick was thrust into the spotlight and made a great save from the first of Leeds’ penalties. He cannot bare any blame for what followed and it was genuinely nice to see he had some excellent support from the senior guys on the bench like Callum Wilson, Todibo and a ‘cuddle’ from his academy mate Ollie Scarles to wish him luck.
There is real spirit there in this squad, two disallowed goals—one of which would have stood in the Championship where VAR has not encroached—and two efforts against the woodwork, showed how close this game was despite a poor first hour or so.
So it’s on to the Wolves test now, another on TV. So nice if we got something going our way for a change. Not always us, you have to hope.
* Like to share your thoughts on this article? Please visit the KUMB Forum to leave a comment.
* Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the highlighted author/s and do not necessarily represent or reflect the official policy or position of KUMB.com.