Gameweek 13 - Preview

David Harris  21 November 2009 16:42:06

Well, so much for International Week being dull. The talk since Wednesday night has been all about  Main de Dieu, Henry-gate, or "that cheating bastard Frenchman". But more about that later. I used to have a lot of time for Thierry Henry, but I think it's safe to say that's not the case anymore.

It's an interesting weekend ahead in the Premier League, with the Liverpool-Manchester swapsies, a six pointer between West Ham and Hull at the KC, and the all C&B affair at Turf Moor as Burnley (of whom I'm growing quite fond) host Villa.

First off is a Torres-deficient Liverpool against a Citeh side who are, according to reports, soon to lose Carlos Tevez, to retirement post South Africa, and Craig Bellamy, due to long term injuries. That said, Bellamy still has a chance to fulfil the curse of the ex-player at Anfield. In the other direction go Everton, to Old Trafford, where they haven't won in 17 years. Imperial Lord Ferg's "touchline ban" isn't in effect for this game, although it is for a forthcoming Carling Cup tie. Funny that.

Elsewhere in the North West, provided the RNLI are on stand-by, Bolton host Blackburn, while Burnley, this season's Cinderella side, take on Champions League hopefuls Villa. Burnley have done pretty well at home so far, including a win against Man Utd, and were good value for a 3-3 draw at Citeh last time out, so this could be an interesting game. It'll probably end goal-less now I've said that.

L'Arsenal, former home of le Cheat, take on Sunderland. At Sunderland. Expect a vociferous reception for the Premiership's French contingent, especially the beneficiary of Monsieur Va-va-voom's legerdemain, TIDC defender William Gallas.

Fulham have two games this week, firstly away to Brum, then at home to Blackburn midweek (Everton go to Hull as well - Europa League off week), so I'm hoping Bobby Zamora has maintained his current attitude over the break.

The big game for Katy Perry's favourite club is against Hull. We don't know if Carlton Cole has recovered from his recent hamstring problem, but James Tomkins is likely to be out, as is Junior Stanislas. This should see Manuel Da Costa start alongside TIDC regular Matthew Upson, while we're hoping Signor Diamanti will start for once.

And that's it. The team:

GK:        Green
DEF:        Upson, Gallas, Collins, Cuellar
MID:        Fabregas, Benayoun, Mascherano, Arshavin
FOR:        Zamora, Diamanti

Subs:        Hahnemann, Huddlestone, Bridge, Torres

Up The Irons!!!

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Gameweek 12 - Final

David Harris  18 November 2009 15:00:53

International week again, ho hum.

Week 12 was a bit of an odd one for the Ironworks. The constituent teams had mixed results, with good wins for Villa and Arsenal, draws for Liverpool and Arsenal, with West Ham gifting three points to Everton. It also saw Bridge and Cuellar make their first appearances due to James Collins and Fernando Torres being injured.Cuellar's 10 points were very welcome, but Citeh could only scrape a draw at home to Burnley.

Cesc Fabregas continued his run of form, picking up 11 points (doubled, as captain), but van Persie who he feeds regularly at Arsenal looks to have picked up an injury that may see Fabregas' assist tally drop over the coming weeks. The prognosis is similarly poor for Torres, although he's not opted for equine placenta treatment as yet.

Points then: Green 2, Upson 1, Gallas 1, Bridge 1, Cuellar 10, Fabregas 22, Benayoun 2, Mascherano 5, Arshavin 7, Zamora 2, Diamanti 1.

In the standings, TIDC are up to 86,883rd overall, 235th in the Football Weekly league, and 71st in Iain Dale's league.

And West Ham managers are still top.

Up the Irons!!!

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Gameweek 12 - Preview

David Harris  6 November 2009 15:25:35

Gameweek 12 sees only five Saturday games, with Everton's and Fulham's Europa league commitments meaning their games are pushed to Sunday in addition to the usual Sky games, while Liverpool face Birmingham on Monday night. TIDC have no players in what's probably the biggest game, Chelsea against Man Utd. I have nothing to say about that game apart from "come on Chelsea".

Aston Villa should be able to cope with Bolton at home, as should Arsenal away at Wolves on Saturday. Huddlestone's and Bridge's places on the Ironworks' bench means that's where our interest ends until Sunday. Bobby Zamora is likely to start for Fulham against Wigan who can be a bit stingy at home, so fingers crossed he can help the Cottagers to a good result.

West Ham come off the back of two unlikely draws (didn't expect anything against Arsenal, deserved all three against Sunderland) and a good win against Villa midweek. Rob Green looks to be getting back to his best and it seems the sort of game that might need a bit of magic from Diamanti to come alive.

Then, what to say about Liverpool? One minute you think they're on the verge of collapse, then they come out with the sort of breath-taking performance that saw them beat Man Utd comfortably. With Torres vowing to play through the pain of his current set of injuries and Steven Gerrard not yet ruled out, with the game being on Monday helping both, this could well see the three points heading to Merseyside, or equally a Scouse implosion.

Finally, on Sunday at the Boleyn Ground, a plaque commemorating the sacrifices of the 13th Battalion (West Ham) Essex Regiment ("The Hammers") will be unveiled, with men from C (Essex) Company, 1st Battalion, Royal Anglian Regiment playing the Last Post. The game against Everton, like all games in England this weekend, will be preceded by a minute's silence. Many of the men of the 13th were West Ham fans and employees of the Thames Ironworks Company.

We Remember Them

Up The Irons!!!

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Gameweek 11 - Final

David Harris  6 November 2009 14:55:25

 Well, an amazing thing happened on Wednesday night - West Ham won a game against ten men. A true poacher's goal from Zavon Hines in stoppage time gave the Hammers all three points against a depleted Aston Villa, despite twice surrendering leads against ten-men teams earlier in the campaign (Fulham and Sunderland). To cap it all, Rob Green saved a penalty, meaning he ends the week with twelve points and a place in the Dream Team. Ashley Young's mishit cross/deceptive shot means that he and Upson miss out on a clean sheet bonus.

Three goals conceded means Matthew Upson gains a meagre three, William Gallas' goal against the spuds gives him six, while James 'Ginge' Collins' yellow card on Wednesday drops him to an anaemic two.

Across the midfield, Fabregas' goal and man of the match performance, sees him on eleven, with Benayoun and Mascherano on two each, and Arshavin on four. Up front, Torres' consolation goal against Fulham, plus captain's bonus, sees him also pick up twelve, while Bobby Zamora picked up six, and Diamanti's bench-warming antics garnered a solitary point. Yes, Torres' consolation for Liverpool against Fulham. yes, I reckoned it would be Zamora scoring the consolation. I know. I was wrong. Please let the Rafa implosion stop.

Standings:

Overall, TIDC dropped to 113,880th overall, to 302nd in the Guardian's Football weekly league, and 98th in Iain Dale's league. Those two leagues moved up to 4th and 34th out of all leagues, respectively.

And West Ham-led teams are even further in front.

Up the Irons!!!

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The West Ham Pals

David Harris  5 November 2009 15:01:22

On Sunday, there will be a dedication at the Boleyn Ground of a plaque to commemorate the 13th Battalion Essex Regiment ("The Hammers"), also known as the West Ham Pals.

From the West Ham Pals site:

Please note: the unveiling, at the Boleyn Ground, of the Memorial Plaque dedicated to the sacrifices made by the Men of the 13th Battalion (West Ham) Essex Regiment ('The Hammers') will now take place on Remembrance Sunday, 8th November at 10.55am.

The original 13th Essex King's Colours will be paraded and the Last Post played by the last line of the Essex Regiment: Men of C (Essex) Company, 1st Battalion, Royal Anglian Regiment with 2nd Newham Scouts as Honour Guard.

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Gameweek 11 - Provisional

David Harris  4 November 2009 14:09:06

This was not a very good weekend for TIDC, all told. West Ham threw away a well-deserved 2-0 lead against 10 man Sunderland, Liverpool got battered by Fulham, with Torres picking up an injury that will keep him out of the game for weeks, While Aston Villa just scraped a draw at Everton. About the only bright spos were Arsenal's thumping of Tottenham, and Bobby Zamora's goal against Fulham.

Tonight see's the rescheduled game between West Ham and Aston Villa, at the Boleyn Ground. It could be interesting for a number of reasons. Firstly, evening midweek games at Upton Park are always special. The ground takes on a different intensity, and the noise can be unbelievably loud: I remember an FA Cup quarter-final replay against Arsenal back in 1998 where, despite being in the Bobby Moore Upper, I didn't get get my hearing back properly for two days.

Secondly, tonight sees the return of James 'Ginge' Collins, Jack Collison's Wales team-mate, Ironworks stalwart, and former rock in the Hammers defence. I hope he gets a great reception (I'm sure he will), but doesn't have a great game. Finally, tonight's game also sees the likely return, due to injuries and suspensions taking their toll on the Villa bench, of former Hammer Nigel Reo-Coker. Son of a West Ham legend, and one of our youngest captains, the relationship turned sour when he left the club after he claimed he'd kept the club from relegation almost single-handedly, and that he deserved to be at a "bigger, better" club. Hmm. How to leave a club gracefully, from the Frank Lampard Jr  school of charm and etiquette. I can confidently predict he will not receive the same sort of welcome as Ginge.

No predictions on this one. It's an important game for West Ham, and we need to start to picking up points at home, but Villa have impressed me so far this season.

More results & standings after this game, annoying virus permitting.

COYI!!!

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Gameweek 11 - Preview

David Harris  31 October 2009 16:22:35

Very short preview this week, being extraordinarily pressed for time.

Firstly, some team news, with Torres coming back as Huddlestone drops back to the bench. He also reclaims the captain's armband from Cesc Fabregas. That being done, Torres will probably have a stinker while Cesc scores a hatrick and makes four more. That would be a fantastic result in any case, since Arsenal host bitter north London rivals Spurs, which is another good reason to drop Huddlestone - despite West Ham somehow clawing back a 2-2 draw on Sunday, I can see the Gooners making hay this weekend.

Liverpool visit Fulham, so hopefully Bobby Zamora might grab a consolation goal or two, since I can I can only really see one outcome there, Fulham's respectable home form notwithstanding.

For Aston Villa and West Ham, there are two games this week, the second being when the play each other, a game rescheduled from Gameweek 2 due to Villa's Europa League commitments. I'll give that a proper preview during the interim results post. As for the weekend, Villa are away to Everton, who are, like themselves, one of the teams trying  to break the Big Four's stranglehold on Champions League places. Ginge and Cuellar (sub) will need to be on their mettle, I think.

West Ham will hopefully be full of confidence following Sunday's aforementioned draw with the Arse, so it should be an entertaining game at Sunderland. As a sidenote, there was a very good article in today's Star (the Malaysian paper, I mean, a far sight better than the English redtop of the same name) by ESPN presenter John Dykes - definitely worth a read.

Team for the week:

GK        Green
DEF        Upson, Gallas, Collins
MID        Fabregas, Benayoun, Mascherano, Arshavin
ATT        Torres, Zamora, Diamanti

COYI!!!

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Gameweek 10 - Final

David Harris  29 October 2009 15:49:21

Well, Gameweek 10 didn't really go to plan at all. It was actually quite a strange weekend, what with all games actually being finished before Monday, the clocks in the UK changing and then there was Chelsea's roasting of H1N1-stricken Blackburn.

Aston Villa were unlucky to gain only a point from Molineux, with Wolves being granted an absolute gimme of a penalty - no clean sheet bonus for Ginge, although he did pick up a bonus point. Elsewhere for the Ironworks, Tom Huddlestone picked up appearance points for Spurs as they lost at home to Stoke (he did score a great volley during the Carling Cup game on Tuesday though. Sadly, it doesn't count for Fantasy Prem).

Otherwise, all TIDC's players made their appearances on Sunday. Bobby Zamora picked up 5 points with an assist, yet missed (by all accounts, I haven't seen the youtube version yet) an absolute sitter as Fulham garnered a valuable point at Citeh, to start things off, then obviously, the big game of the weekend was Liverpool's hosting of Man Utd. Much beachball-themed fun was on display, as was an unexpected performance from Fernando Torres. So unexpected was it, in fact, that I'd dropped him on the grounds that everyone though he was injured. Not only was he fit enough to play, but fit enough to indulge in his apparent favourite weekend pastime of making Nemanya Vidic look an absolute, two left-footed monkey, while effortlessly ignoring the attentions of Rio Ferdinand to score the first goal. Job done (and 8 points dropped by TIDC). And Benayoun got the assist to end with 6 points; Mascherano's points were negated by his red card for two bookable offences.

So onwards to the weekend's final, and to me, most important, game, West Ham versus Arsenal. Despite a bright start, West Ham conceded after around fifteen minutes and were two down by half time. On recent form of both clubs, one would have expected Arsenal to go on to score a hatful, but it wasn't to be. The introduction of Alessandro Diamanti early in the second half had an immediate effect, as did the late appearance of young Zavon Hines. A superb free kick from the aforementioned Italian forced the Arsenal keeper to parry straight onto Carlton Cole's head: 2-1. Ten minutes (-ish) later and stand in referee Chris Foy made amends for an error four minutes before by awarding the Hammers a somewhat soft penalty, well, much softer than the first appeal anyway. Despite keeper Manone confronting Diamanti in a blatant piece of gamesmanship, for which he duly received a caution, he had no chance with the kick: low, hard, perfectly placed: 2-2. West Ham weren't that far away from scraping all three points in the very last stages, although Green made a vital save at the death from Van Persie to keep things level.

Points were, Green, 2, Upson, 1, Diamanti, 8, Gallas, 9, Fabregas (capt), 10, Arshavin, 3.

So the standings.Overall, we've slipped to 88,220th, 223rd in the Guardian league, but up one to 79th in Iain Dale's league.

And West Ham still lead the Fans' table.

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Gameweek 10 - Preview

David Harris  24 October 2009 17:34:37

This is promising to be one hell of a weekend in the Premier League. First up is Aston Villa's very short trip to Molineux to take on Mick McCarthy's Wolves. Wolves seem to be finding their feet now, so it could be a bit tough for Ginge and Cuellar. However, I think they should come through it with three points heading back to Brum. From an Ironworks perspective, the only other game of note on Saturday is Spurs' hosting of Stoke. The spuds should put in a better performance against the Potters than West Ham managed, but I'd only expect Huddlestone to pick up his appearance points in this one.

From a West Ham point of view, though, there is another game of interest, although I'd really rather it wasn't, and that's the game between the two slices of bread that make a West Ham sandwich of the bottom three, with 18th placed Hull hosting bottom dwellers Portsmouth. Pompey, though yet to win a game, have been playing some very good football and have been unlucky not to have picked up a few more points. On the other hand, I'm not sure that they've got what it takes to start scrapping hard this early, so I'm hoping for a draw. Otherwise, the day could end with West Ham bottom of the league.

Onwards to Sunday. Because of the daylight savings switch in the UK, there's some weird kick-off times, which is making it difficult to plan the day's viewing. First up at 12:30 (I'm presuming GMT) is Bolton versus Everton, to which we all mutter a resounding "Meh!". No interest there, whatsoever. At 14:00 is Man City against Fulham, while it'd be great to see Bobby Z repeat his performance from Monday night, I really can't see any of the three points on offer leaving Eastlands, Citeh have just been too effective this season to let Hodgson's men sneak even a draw.

However, not many people are actually going to be watching that game; presumably because of the vehemence of the rivalry, and the fact that the worldwide audience for the game will be huge and the people who count don't want to mess up the non-UK schedules, Liverpool kick off against Man Utd at 13:00. Always one of the games of the season, for the bitterness of the fans and passion of the players to perform for them, with Liverpool's poor start at the forefront of Manc minds this is going to be a raucous affair. It's not looking good for the Scousers, with their dynamic duo, Gerrard and Torres, both out of action, but the His Purpleness Imperial Lord Ferg of Wrigley looks likely to be without Rooney. Things may hinge on whether Edwin Van Der Sar is properly recovered, or whether Mr Reliable, Ben Foster, will start. TIDC only have Yossi Benayoun and Javier Mascherano in this game, so fingers crossed Yoosi has a game like he did against Stoke.

The final game is one of the bigger London derbies, with the Gooners coming to Upton Park. It's not Scousers/Manc, but it's still a game that normally sees Upton Park at it's most intimidatory. However, with our woeful start to the season, and the level of creative football Arsenal have been playing, it's difficult to see us getting a result. Fabregas, Arsenal's captain (and TIDC's in Torres' continued absence) will create havoc unless our midfield is at it's best, as will Arshavin. That said, they don't seem to be doing well with set pieces so far, so if we get a few free kicks around their box, Diamanti's delivery (and Noble's has improved as well) plus the aerial threat from Upson and Tomkins could gives a chance. Fingers crossed.

Team for the weekend:

GK        Green
DEF        Upson, Gallas, Collins
MID        Fabregas, Benayoun, Huddlestone, Mascherano, Arshavin
FOR        Zamora, Diamanti

SUB        Hahnemann, Bridge, Cuellar, Torres

COYI!!!

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Gameweek 9 - Final

David Harris  20 October 2009 15:44:11

It was something of an odd week this week in Fantasy Premier League. There weren't any big scores, with no team scoring more than three. The highest points score was a measly 86, and an average of 40. Liverpool were beaten by a beachball, and James Collins scored.

On the TIDC front, we did reasonably well, all things considered. Matthew Upson scored to equalise against Stoke's (rather soft, in my view) penalty, yet West Ham still lost (Green 1 pt, Upson 7pts, Diamanti 2 pts). Zola and Clarke clearly have their work cut out trying to instill some confidence in the side, which is going to be pretty difficult given the amount of crap being slung at the club by the tabloids in the UK.

That said, there might be some good news on the corporate front: it was reported that there's yet another consortium interested, but this time not involving the sleazy pairing of Davids Gold and Sullivan. No, this is rumoured to involve the Malaysian equivalent of Richard Branson. Founder of AirAsia (who currently sponsor match officials), he's out and proud as a West Ham diehard; he's also loaded, and according to reports, he's not the only Iron in this consortium. he was also seen talking to West Ham CEO Scott Duxbury in the Directors' box at the recent home game  against Fulham. While it may not come to anything, a boost to the club's profile (and transfer budget) would be very welcome over here.

In other Claret and Blue appearances, Burnley sadly lost to Blackburn Rovers in the cotton mill derby, but Aston Villa followed Scunthorpe's fine example in beating the reviled Blunts (Sheffield United) by beating another team not much loved at Upton Park: Villa's 2-1 result over Chelsea was not only great from a schadenfreude point of view, but capped a great week for Ginge: captained his country for the first time, and scored the winner against Chelski, with bonus points to bring his fantasy score up to 11. Cuellar was sub for TIDC, so his two points don't count. Tom Huddlestone also scored two in a fairly lacklustre game against Pompey that was notable really only for Defoe being sent off after scoring the winner against his former club for his former former club; unravelling the many Spuds-Pompey entanglements could give Hawking problms.

The other two major Saturday games for TIDC were Liverpool's abject defeat to a beachball (rumours abound that manure fans have bought up the Liverpool website's stock of them ahead of Sunday's Redscouse/manure clash). Really, this was a woeful performance from a Liverpool side denuded of Gerrard and Torres, gaining only 3 points for the Ironworks. The saving grace was Arsenal's less than convincing win over Birmingham. A goal from Arshavin plus an assist from temporary TIDC captain Fabregas netted us 25 points from that game alone.

The real shock of the weekend actually came on Monday night. It wasn't that Fulham won, which anyone could have predicted from the clubs' performances so far this season, but the individual performance of ex-Hammer Bobby Zamora. He was everywhere, and arguably should have done better than his one goal and one assist. Still, I'm sure he and Roy Hodgson are very pleased with the result, as am I with his 11 points.

So, the standings. Overall, TIDC are 76,998th out of 2,092,886, a leap of around 75,000 places. We're 209th out of 1,861 in the Guardian's Football Weekly league, which is 5th out of over 182,000, and 80th out of 952 in  Iain Dale's league, which stands 82nd as a league. We're 2,436th of the 130,000 Malaysian based teams, and 1,710th out of 42,288 West Ham fans.

And West Ham led teams are still clear leaders.

Until next week, and the visit of the Arse, COYI!!!

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