Blues v West Ham CC 2nd Leg Brief Post Match Thoughts

Sometimes I HATE being a blues fan. Talk about being put through the wringer!

I missed the first 20 minutes but I arrived at the pub to find it had a load of West Ham fans! Fortunately one was a good friend, so I felt safe. My mate said we’d started brightly but West Ham had come into the match more. I hadn’t been there that long before West Ham took the lead on the night, and went 2 ahead on aggregate.

The pub erupted with West Ham songs, and I got a fair bit of stick. The thing about the goal is that he should never have had the shot in the first place. The throw in wasn’t defended properly and Cole found himself in space he shouldn’t have had and he turned and curled a lovely shot around Foster. To be fair that was the last mistake the defence made, more of that in a moment.

The remainder of the half was all West Ham. We were utterly atrocious. No fight, no skill in fact no hope! I said to me mate and said, you’re through we’ll never score 3!

The 2nd half started and just like the 1st leg, we looked a different side. Alex bought on Zigic, (he has often been criticised for waiting too long, but not tonight – it was an inspired sub. He made a real nuisance of himself and the pressure began to build on the West Ham defence.

Finally it broke and a Bowyer shot hit the net, (why did it have to be him my Hammers mate said!) Gardner was beginning to run the midfield and the only surprise was that it took 20 minutes before we got our 2nd, a Roger Johnson header. West Ham showed the odd flurry, but never looked like scoring again.

We could and probably should have won it before extra time we hit the post twice, Gardner looked like he’d scored in the last minute. But no, this is Blues – so we HAD to go through the agony of extra time and possibly penalties. However Craig Gardner decided he didn’t want penalties, and just 4 minutes into extra time hit a shot across goal that beat Green to his right and hit the net. The pub went silent except for me, who jumped up in the air and screamed YEEEEAAAAHHHHHH!!! (My mate reminded me that we were never going to score 3!)

The rest of extra time we allowed West Ham to come onto us, but we never gave them a chance really. I thought the back 4 after their goal were brilliant and a special mentio to Jiranek who looked class tonight except for a couple of moments in the 1st half.

Now the thing is, I sound all confident now – but I was wrecked by the end of extra time and I have to say I didn’t really celebrate for a couple of reasons. Firstly I was drained! Secondly I felt for the West Ham fans, I’ve been there and I wanted to show them respect.

So I’m celebrating now – que sera sera, whatever will be will be, we’re going to wem-ber-lee que sera sera!