Off-form West Ham will be put through the ringer as Oxford arrive in the Carling Cup
The start of the new season has been anything but an old school cockney knees-up for the Hammers. More like a man-overboard. The Hammers have been unable to get out of first gear with back-to-back Premier League defeats, and there is the real possibility of even more humiliation for the Irons as the university challengers Oxford come to Upton Park in the Carling Cup.
Before a ball had been kicked, the Hammers were happy in their belief that this year would be better than the previous 12 months. Then, under the management of loveable but results-light Gianfranco Zola, the Hammers just managed to avoid relegation after after season of upheavel in the boardroom.
Eggy and his Icelandic chums finally moved on. David Gold and David Sullivan moved in. And with Avram Grant in charge, Carlton Cole and Scott Parker still on the books, and talk of a move to the brand new Olympic Stadium in the pipeline, it looked like happy days for the Eastenders. But West Ham dont do simple, happy endings. Rather they prefer to force their faithful to chew their nails down to the stubs, see that their teenage fans are committed 20-a-day smokers, by refusing to do things the easy way.
At Villa Park on the opening day of the season barely anything went according to plan for the Clarets. Rob Green, after his World Cup horror-show, looked like a condemned man, while James Tomkins should that the young pups had also lost their bark with a pitiful display at the back. With little to show up front either, the managerless Villians stormed to a 3-nil victory without breaking much of a sweat.
Last Saturday, and the visit of Bolton to the Boleyn Ground for the first home match of the new year, was equally soul-destroying for the Hammers. The Trotters are known to be a bogey team for West Ham, but that had little bearing on Carlton Cole! s ridicu lously bad 35th minute penalty attempt that Jussi Jaaskelainen saved with consummate ease. A Matthew Upson own goal followed by a Johan Elmander double (only his 9th and 10th goals in 57 Bolton appearances) made sure that Grants frumpy face got that much more miserable.
There are two urgent issues for Grant to work on: confidence and the defence.
Starting with the latter, the Hammers have simply been far too generous in their opening outings of the season. New signing Winston Reid who appears to have been recruited just because he scored that last-gasp New Zealand equaliser against Slovakia at the World Cup doesnt look much cop. There has been little to suggest that Green or Upson have shaken off their poor World Cup form, while the likes of Faubert and Ilunga appear to still have their heads on summer holiday mode.
With a broken backline, confidence is wafer-thin. The truth is that until they went behind to Bolton, West Ham were the better team on Saturday. But, much like the curse of last season, as soon as the Hammers conceded their heads collectively fell and there is a great deal of worry that with Manchester United and Chelsea up next that the Hammers will have to wait a while before they can finally get their season up and running.
All this is music to the ears of Oxford.
The Us had an exciting last 12 months as they returned to the Football League for the first time in four years by winning the Conference play-off final. That Oxford needed to gain promotion via the play-off was itself somewhat surprising after the Chris Wilders charges had lead the division for much of the season only to come a little unstuck in the run-in. But once they found themselves in the end-of-year lottery, Oxford once again found their feet when it mattered most to confidently breeze past Rushden and York.
Although tipped for big things in League Two this season, so far theyve had a stuttering start. After three games they have only managed to chalk up two draws and a defeat however ! they did fair much better in the previous round of the Craling Cup smashing Bristol Rovers for six.
Oxfords star player in 25-year-old forward James Constable. A lower league journeyman who has scored goal wherever hes played, Constable arrived at the Kassam Stadium at the start of the 2008-09 season and instantly found his feet scoring a bucketload of goals for the Us. In just over two years at the club the now Oxford captain has bagged 45 goals in just 81 games, earning him the reputation as one of the deadliest sharpshooters in the lower leagues.
While Constable is Oxfords ever-present, far more fresh-faced is Chelseas teenage loanee Danny Philliskirk. Tipped for big things at Stamford Bridge having captained the under-19s last season, Philliskirk is a classy attacking midfielder/forward who is just as capable of delivering the killer pass as scoring a belter to win a match. With a chance to prove himself against Premier League opposition, West Ham need to keep an eye of this upstart.
Having sold-out their 3000 ticket allocation for the cup tie, Oxford will a boisterous band of supporters cheering them on on Tuesday night. Whether that will be enough for them to cause the cupset remains doubtful, but if they can manage to bag the opening goal of the game then all bets will be off.
Should West Ham lose (as they have done to Watford and Plymouth in previous seasons), then expect to hear the cat-calls for Grant to be fired to get louder, more anger, and then louder again.
101gg predicts: West Ham 0 Oxford 1
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