West Ham United Season 2004-2005

COCA COLA CHAMPIONSHIP/COCA COLA CUP/FA CUP
= Dublin Hammers Meeting (Live on television). LP = League Position.

JULY (PRE-SEASON) 2004

Tour of Sweden:

News: West Ham sell David Connolly to Leicester City for £500,000.
13th UMEa (a). 5-0. (zamora x3, harewood, sofiane).
News: West Ham sign Teddy Seringham on a free from Portsmouth.
15th Gif Sundsvall (a). 3-1. (zamora x2, harewood).
Team: Bywater, Brevitt, Melville, Daily, Mullins, Lomas, Reo-Coker, Hutchinson, Etherington,
Harewood and Zamora.
19th Fris Ka Viljor (a). 3-1. (hutchinson, reo-coker, mullins).

UK Friendlies:

24th Peterborough United (a). 1-1. (dailly).
News: West Ham sign Sergei Rebrov on a 1 year deal.
28th Colchester United (a). 2-1. (etherington, harewood).
31st Anderlecht (h). 4-4. (cohen, melville, sheringham, mcanuff).

AUGUST 2004

News: West Ham sign Luke Chadwick on a 1 year deal.

07th Leicester City (a). 0-0.
"Dion Dublin, making his debut for the Foxes saw red following an altercation with Rufus Brevett", "A superb second-half double save from Ian Walker denied Harewood and Sheringham, but his heroics were matched at the other end by an immense, one-handed stop by Stevie Bywater to deny David Connolly the kind of debut for which we would never have forgiven him". "With just minutes remaining Rufus Brevett received his marching orders following a second booking". from KUMB Website.

10th Reading (h). 1-0. (sheringham).
"Teddy Sheringham's first goal for West Ham was enough to give the Hammers their first win of the season. The former England striker stroked the ball home from six yards after 81 minutes after Luke Chadwick's cross caused chaos in the Reading defence", "In an open match, Reading could have scored after 15 seconds but Andy Hughes shot over", "Marlon Harewood had a number of chances for the Hammers, but found Royals' keeper Marcus Hahnemann in good form". from BBC Online.

14th Wigan Ath. (h). 1-3. (zamora).
"The Academy of Football has become a school of hard lessons for West Ham and yesterday's lecture was on a familiar theme: drop out of the Premier League, auction off your top talent, then watch teams that were not even in the same orbit a few seasons ago humble you at home", "Wigan strode into the east end, utterly outplayed a team they had never beaten before and climbed to the top of the league", "With 21 minutes left, Reo-Coker dragged the ball across the area for Zamora to force in at the second attempt. The 3 points were already long gone". The Daily Mail.

21st Crewe Alex. (a). 3-2. (sheringham x2, brevett). LP:7th.
"The Hammers earned their second win of the season thanks to a first half brace from Teddy Sheringham and a first of the season for Rufus Brevett. But missing the likes of Christian Dailly and Andy Melville, the Hammers struggled at the other end of the pitch - and former Hammers target Dean Ashton profitted twice to leave the Hammers hanging on at the final whistle". from KUMB Website.

24th Southend (h). Coca Cola Cup. 1st Rd. 2-0. (harewood x2).
"A rather incipid performance from West Ham. Manager Alan Pardew has promised signings in the coming weeks, on this showing they will come straight into the side". from Radio 5 Live Report

News: And so Carrick is sold to Tottenham, the last of that great team of home grown players, now all playing at chelsea and spurs... BROWN OUT!

28th Burnley (h). 1-0. (nowland). LP:5th
"For 90 minutes, this was Adam Nowland's day. But a contretemps involving 20 players, followed swiftly by a shocking 2 footed takle by Chris Cohen that led to his sending off, rendered the performance of nowland a side issue.", "Nowland galvanised West Ham after an anaemic opening", "Volleying the ball into the the ground and up into the top corner from 20 yards".The Sunday Times.

30th Coventry City (a). 1-2. (sheringham).
"Coventry earned a battling 2-1 home win over West Ham tonight in a game where the Sky Blues making the most of their chances proved the difference between the two teams", "West Ham were settling into some kind of rhythm in patches. Nowland and Reo-Coker were looking busy and on 42 minutes the latter managed to break through the Coventry defence and square the ball for Sheringham to tap into an empty net", "It's not all bad - until the last 20 minutes, the football being played was an improvement on the two previous games. We could be winning comfortably in a couple of months if the trend continues". from KUMB Website.

SEPTEMBER 2004

11th Sheff. United (a). 2-1. (harewood, sheringham). LP:5th
"Marlon Harewood made amends for missing early on with a thunderbolt that left Paddy Kenny rooted to the spot as the volley flew into his top left corner", "The Blades had the bigger share of possession, but insisted on waging an arial war which new signing Calum Davenport won every time", "Teddy Sheringham gave the most telling contribution with a late beautifully-crafted free kick".The Sunday Times.

News: At last we buy a central defender in the shape of Calum Davenport. Don't suppose Spurs or Chelsea want 'Scottish International' Christain Dailly?

14th Rotherham (h). 1-0. (etherington). LP:4th
"The Millers - who went into the match bottom of the league - came to Upton Park with the sole intention of frustrating the home side by placing numbers behind the ball, and but for a 69th minute free-kick from Matthew Etherington would have succeeded in their task", "Etherington's goal came just as a patient Boleyn crowd was beginning to become a little restless; from some 20 yards he curled a free-kick into the bottom right hand corner of Mike Pollitt's goal". From kumb website.

News: So it's 3 new defenders we have signed! However be warned, Calum Davenport is on a 3 month loan from spurs and Chris Powell is only on a month loan from charlton. Malky MacKay from norwich is the only permanent signing!

18th Ipswich Town (h). 1-1. (mackay).
"West Ham failed to make the most of a host of glorious chances against high-flying Ipswich this afternoon - and paid a heavy price for their profligacy in front of goal", "The Hammers produced their best 45 minutes of football thus far this season in the opening half, but managed to register on the scoresheet once - when new boy Malky Mackay nodded home from close range to score his first goal for the club after 11 minutes", "Mackay could have had a first-half hat-trick", "The turning point arrived when leading goalscorer Teddy Sheringham blasted a poor spot kick", "Hammers paid for their collective misses when Ipswich striker Counago somehow found himself with the ball four yards from goal from a corner. The striker having the simplest of chances to level the scores". From kumb website.

21st Notts County (h). Coca Cola Cup. 2nd Rd. 3-2. (zamora x2, rebrov).
"Bobby Zamora took less than twenty seconds to mark his comeback with a goal, knocking in easily after the keeper spilt a shot by Rebrov", "County tore about the pitch like whirling dervishes, frustrating both the Hammers' team and fans. The fact that Zamora added a second ten minutes into the second half did little to dent their enthusiasm", "Rebrov finally broke his duck with a somewhat fortuitous third, when a long range free-kick squirmed almost embarrassingly under the keeper", "Zamora had the chance to secure victory, and crown his comeback with a hat-trick, when Harewood was brought down in the box and the ref pointed to the spot. At least he got it on target, but for the second successive match, a penalty was missed". From OTT website.

26th Nottingham Forest (a). 1-2. (harewood).
"West Ham threw away three vital points against a desperately poor Nottingham Forest side", "Seemingly crusing to victory at 1-0 thanks to a second-half Marlon Harewood tap-in, Alan Pardew yet again opted for safety first, introducing midfielder Steve Lomas for the tiring Luke Chadwick - to catastrophic effect. With just seven minutes to go, substitute Lomas gave away the ball before making a half-hearted attempt to stop Forest's Paul Evans who drove home the equaliser from 20 yards, and with just seconds of injury time remaining substitute Marlon King curled home another 20-yarder to give Forest the unlikeliest - and most undeserved - of wins" From kumb website.

29th Derby County (a). 1-1. (etherington).
"The Hammers put themselves under the cosh early on against Derby County, conceding at a set piece which ought to have been far more competently dealt with (the ball going in off Repka's head) in the fifth minute", "It was somewhat against the run of play when Etherington equalised, and even for that, his shot might well not have given the keeper much bother but for the ball taking a deflection off a defender's arm", "Sheringham and Reo-Coker both having efforts cleared off the line". From OTT website.

OCTOBER 2004

02nd Wolves (h). 1-0. (sheringham). LP:5th
"Well I'll say this for Ince he's certainly good comedy value these days. A central free-kick a few yards outside the box ended up with Ince doing that thing where players run up as if to shoot but then run over the ball to allow a team mate to actually take the free-kick. This ploy of course only works when the decoy actually informs his team-mates what he's about to do. Ince, presumably having been given some more bad advice on the matter, didn't mention this plan to his team-mates and the ball was left to itself to decide what to do. As to what became of the free-kick when they eventually got round to taking it I'm not sure - the tears of laughter obscured my view", "So with about 15 minutes left it was time for Teddy's moment of class. Powell pushed forward and fed Harewood who in turn tried to find Sheringham. Marlon's pass was a bit over hit but it rebounded kindly to Sheringham. Teddy lifted the ball over Lescott's outstretched leg, took one touch away from the defender coming in from the left and passed the ball into the bottom right hand side past the despairing dive of Oakes. It was a fine goal". From kumb website.

16th QPR (a). 0-1. LP:6th
"Much of the passing from both teams was inaccurate, far too rushed and altogether out of keeping with their traditions", "The second half was abysmal" The Sunday Times. I saw the highlights of this game and they were short! Apart from a couple of shots in the first half we looked poor. At the end QPR should have had a penalty when Zamora handled in the area, but somehow got away with it!

19th Stoke City (h). 2-0. (harewood, sheringham). LP:5th
"Having come with the obvious intention of playing for a draw, Stoke's plan came undone on the half hour, after Mullins pass found Harewood, and he strode forward to place a well aimed shot past Van de Goy. The goal livened up an otherwise tedious first half", "Sheringham made the points safe with a goal worthy of any game, and looked very out of place in the midst of a match of such mind numbing boredom. Harewood crossed and a delicate backheel by the Hammers' sub saw the ball flicked superbly past the keeper. Sheringham also hit the post late on". From OTT website.

23rd Gillingham (h). 3-1. (zamora, harewood, mullins). LP:4th
"The strike force of zamora and harewood quickly proved effective. After 18 minutes zamora was played through by harewood and struck a low shot past the Gillingham keeper. Harewood added a second after 25 minutes, thumping home a cross from zamora", "On 39 minutes, zamora chested down a cross and hit a fierce half-volley which mullins turned into the net from five metres out". The Sunday Times.

27th Chelsea (a). Coca Cola Cup. 3rd Rd. 0-1.
"Of the three former Hammers amongst their number, only one - Joe Cole - began the tie, Frank Lampard was on the bench, while Glen Johnson had to make do with a seat in the stands, though not alongside the near 6,000 West Ham fans inside what was a rain sodden Stamford Bridge", "Walker repelled all the early scares, and with Repka in assured form, there was less for him to do than was anticipated, twice he saved from Cole and once from Kesman. It was far from one way traffic though, and Nowland fired off a couple of speculative efforts, while an Etherington free-kick almost embarrassed Cudicini", "The sight of Lampard entering the fray livened proceedings up considerably. You could see just how badly he wanted to make an impact, and the opportunity soon presented itself on plate when Chelsea were awarded a penalty. He had enough time to think about where to place it, and stepped up, only for Walker to make a save which will make him the darling of Hammers' fans for a long, long time", "It is a measure of just how well the whole West Ham team played that, despite having to push forward and go in search of an equaliser, they held their nerve, and nearly came up with it when Ferdinand missed by inches in time added on. It would not have an injustice had it gone in, and this pulsating Cup tie gone all the way to penalties" From OTT website.

30th Plymouth (a). 1-1. (lomas) LP:6th
"The game was scrappy from start to finish", "The flow of the game was not helped by the antics of the three officials who somehow contrived to make a complete hash of just about every decision", "Halfway through the first half, a flowing move that started with Reo-Coker saw Etherington's cross put away by Harewood. It was an excellent move that was probably the only decent bit of football in the whole match... It was also given offside?", "We did, however, take the lead just before half time. Mullins & Zamora combined and Bobby's cross found Lomas who placed a glancing header in at the far post", "With the home side gaining free kicks with increasing regularity, it was inevitable that the equaliser would come from such a source. A free kick given for some unknown reason was taken some 30 odd yards out. Wotton hit it past the two-man wall. Bywater got a hand to it but could only divert the shot into the roof of the net" From kumb website.

NOVEMBER 2004

02nd Cardiff City (a). 1-4. (harewood)
"Alan Pardew's side will find it difficult to make excuses for their worst performance of the season by far against a side who went in to tonight's match without a win in their last five games", "Worst of all was the nature of the defeat; Pardew's side failed to match a team who, on paper, shouldn't have proved too difficult a test", "Cardiff - who up until tonight had scored just four times at home in the league - upset the form books and fully deserved their victory" from KUMB Website.

06th QPR (h).2-1. (harewood x 2 (1 pen)). LP:5th
"Marlon Harewood's first half penalty was just rewards for the more attacking play that the Hammers put into the match before the break. Chadwick was blocked in the area, giving the referee little option but to point to the spot", "Harewood had one of those games where it leaves you wondering why he doesn't perform like it all the time", "Harewood buried an excellent shot to secure a hard fought for win, in what was probably the best home performance of the season". From OTT website.

13th Brighton H.A. (h). 0-1.
"West Ham had 17 attempts on goal... 4 were on target", "We were mugged" Pardew
The Sunday Times.

20th Millwall (a). 0-1.
"the Hammers fought galliantly for more than an hour, giving as good as they got, but after Marlon Harewood was sent off for a second yellow card, they were really up against and could not keep the Lions at bay. Given that Harewood was playing as a lone striker, it was always an uphill struggle for the Hammers to force the issue, and his dismissal also led to the withdrawl to one of the five midfield players, weakening what had been a very effective formation". From OTT website.

27th Watford (h). 3-2. (reo-coker, powell, rebrov).
"West Ham clawed their way back from 2-0 down to secure their first win in three", "A spirited fightback from Pardew's side - culminating in a 58th minute winner from Sergei Rebrov - earned them three vital points", "Despite the chants of 'Pardew Out' emanating from around the ground, West Ham stuck at the task in hand and clawed one back seven minutes later when Nigel Reo-Coker was first to react to a spilled free-kick from Sergei Rebrov", "Barely 90 seconds later on-loan centre-half Darren Powell marked his home debut with a thundering header from a Matthew Etherington corner to level the scores", "The winning goal arrived thirteen minutes after the break. A quick counter attack by the Hammers saw Steve Lomas free the advancing Matthew Etherington down the left; the winger's sweetly struck cross found the advancing Rebrov at the far post, and the diminutive Ukrainian slotted home to score the goal that cemented all three points". from KUMB Website.

DECEMBER 2004

04th Sunderland (a). 2-0. (harewood, sheringham).
"Marlon Harewood - playing despite suffering from a migraine - opened the scoring for the Hammers on 59 minutes. A breaking Sergei Rebrov fed Chadwick on the right flank, who gave Harewood the easiest of opportunities with a low cross which the former Forest striker converted from six yards", "The score remained at 1-0 until the fourth minute of injury time when the Hammers once again profited on the break. Steve Lomas released Bobby Zamora through the centre; the striker's run took him wide of the goal but he unselfishly centred for the returning Teddy Sheringham to score his first goal since registering against Stoke in mid-October" from KUMB Website.

10th Leeds United (h). 1-1. (chadwick) LP:5th
"the switch of Rebrov for Sheringham at the break took only five minutes to do the trick, and Luke Chadwick - who shone troughout the first half - stroked the ball past Sullivan. The visitors had their moments, notably when Darren Powell's weak backpass let Brian Deane in on goal", "Many happy fans were either already out of the ground or on the way out, when Leeds were handed a last minute penalty, an opportunity David Healy did not waste" from OTT Website.

18th Preston North End (a). 1-2. (reo-coker).
"Two well struck first half goals were enough for struggling Preston to see off the often careless and lazy West Ham", "The emphatic, stylish goals scored by the home side perked them up considerably, they obviously raised their game for the visit of the Hammers, but like so many others this season, they hardly needed to. With the points as good as in the bag by the break, they let substitute Reo-Coker pull one back, but it was never going to affect where those three precious points were going". from OTT Website.

26th Nottingham Forest (h). 3-2. (sheringham 2, etherington).
"A Teddy Sheringham brace saw the Hammers edge a home against struggling Nottingham Forest", "However, having been two goals up at the break, West Ham allowed the visitors to get back on level terms", "They also had a goal ruled out for a push on Bywater, one which would have given them the lead, only to concede one themselves when the keeper's clearance from a weak backpass hit Etherington as he turned away, and went in. The goal scorer turned provider when Sheringham doubled the lead", "Someone should do a drug test on whatever refreshements the two teams had during the break, because they were transformed for half an hour, with West Ham looking for all the World like they'd had one too many, and Forest as though they were on steroids. David Johnson scored twice in five minutes, only for the Hammers to wake from their torpor in the last ten minutes, and snatch what ought to have been an easy win". from OTT Website.

28th Rotherham (a). 2-2. (sheringham-pen, harewood-pen).
"West Ham went in at half-time two-nil down at bottom of the table Rotherham", "The first half could have seen a hatful of goals scored at either end, Lomas, Repka and Reo-Coker all missed their opportunities, while Butler and McIntosh made theirs count, and they had another disallowed". "It was the front two who caused all the problems, with Harewood being brought down for the first of the penalties, scored by Sheringham, and him winning the second one which Harewood equalised with". from OTT Website.