Hammers crucify Pilgrims
By Neville Nixon
February 20 2005
The five nil score line to the home team was real enough, and for the 26,000 who braved the cold and took the risk of coming to watch a match that represented another potential championship banana skin for the erratic and fragile Hammers,

 

West Ham Utd  5  v  0  Plymouth Argyle

 

Disgruntled fans booing their team off is common place down at the Boleyn nowadays, this juxtaposed appreciation was, however, reserved for the fans of Plymouth Argyle as their team set about giving Alan Pardew and his men their belated birthday and Christmas presents all in one! The five nil score line to the home team was real enough, and for the 26,000 who braved the cold and took the risk of coming to watch a match that represented another potential championship banana skin for the erratic and fragile Hammers, the game took on an almost surreal atmosphere. As early as the tenth minute ‘Marvellous’ Marlon Harewood fired home a penalty following a Gudjonsson handball, but this proved to be just the first of a trio of bizarre first half goals. The second goal could well have been credited to any great comedian, the timing and delivery were incredible, the Argyle keeper Luke McCormick somehow contrived to hurl the ball into his own net, and if that wasn’t generosity personified, the Pilgrims defence decided to ‘runaway’ leaving Malky Mackay to fire into an empty net.

 

For the second half, with  such an emphatic lead , under pressure West Ham manager Pardew substituted Hayden Mullins and young Mark Noble with Steve Lomas who was playing his first game since December and Bobby Zamorra, having already ‘saved ‘ Sergei Rebrov as early as the 30^th minute, doubtless with the next match against Gillingham on Tuesday evening in mind.

 

Plymouth started the second half with much more industry than the first, with Hammers ex England U21 keeper Stephen Bywater forced into making a couple of top draw reflex saves, that any Premiership keeper would have been proud off. Having ridden the Pilgrims fight back, Teddy Sheringham and Co then proceeded to run the show, with the veteran himself scoring a powerful header in the 76^th minute and then to cap a super day, scoring from a twice taken penalty, the first attempt being saved, except McCormick was deemed to have encroached. The spot kick came about as a result of Nigel Reo-Coker being hacked down in the area, for which Doumbe was sent off.

All in all a happy day for the Hammers long suffering fans and a horror show for the Pilgrims. Here is how the respective managers reacted to the result.

The Hammers were in control at the interval after three bizarre goals, the first a Marlon Harewood penalty after Bjarni Gudjonsson punched the ball.

Pilgrims keeper Luke McCormick then spilled the ball in his own net before Malky Mackay was left alone by the away defence to lob in the third.

 

·  West Ham boss Alan Pardew:

"The early goal was a real fillip because the tension around the team got lifted, you could see that in the individual performances. "We tightened up at the back and our goalkeeper played well. "There were a lot of positives. The big news was the manner in which we won, the way we played, I think we can build on that."

·  Plymouth boss Bobby Williamson:

"We didn't do ourselves justice and I'm disappointed for the fans who turned up in good voice and good number. "If you analyse all their goals we could have dealt with them better. "It was our worst performance as a team this season but if we got a goal back we could have asked questions of West Ham and they might have got nervous."

West Ham: Bywater, Repka, Ferdinand, Mackay, Powell, Rebrov (Reo-Coker 31), Mullins (Lomas 45), Fletcher, Noble (Zamora 48), Sheringham, Harewood.
Subs Not Used: Walker, Etherington. Booked: Repka. Goals: Harewood 10 pen, McCormick 23 og, Mackay 40, Sheringham 76, 84 pen.

Plymouth: McCormick, Worrell, Doumbe, Coughlan, Aljofree, Adams, Lasley (Norris 45), Gudjonsson (Capaldi 45), Buzsaky, Chadwick, Blackstock.
Subs Not Used: Evans, Taylor, Gilbert. Sent Off: Doumbe (82). Booked: Capaldi, Chadwick.

Att: 25,490.

Ref: K Friend (Leicestershire).

 

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