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WEST HAM v MIDDLESBROUGH - MATCH REPORT
Schwarzer, Bates, Riggott, Southgate (Queudrue 25), Pogatetz, Mendieta, Boateng, Doriva (Viduka 78), Rochemback, Maccarone (Hasselbaink 58), Yakubu
Jones, Morrison
The cheer that Steve McClaren got at the end of the Grasshoppers game on Thursday night made a mockery of the recent criticism that he had endured. Today, Boro needed to do the same to their Sunday-after-Europe record.
THE FIRST HALF
It was a bright start to today's fixture with both sides looking positive, Boro especially with their 4-4-2 formation. It signified that we are out to win this, as of course we should have been.
The Hammers looked adept at winning corners and an early one from Repka almost gave us a fright but we recovered well.
The Hammers were causing us problems down the right hand side and Rochemback in his customary 'free' role failed to pick up the attacker on more than one occasion.
And the game developed into a clear pattern of The Hammers breaking forward and Boro escaping after failing to adequately deal with the danger.
We were clearly second best in the first twenty minutes and were lucky to still be level as The Hammers had missed five clear chances that you would normally have expected them to score.
It got worst for Boro on twenty-five minutes when we lost Captain Southgate who departed the field with blood streaming form a head wound. French Franck replaced him in central defence.
Franck's first touch was a poor one and led to a Hammers corner when he gave the ball away under no pressure. It might be an idea to try him at left back one day. You never know, it might just work.
On thirty minutes, The Hammers had the ball in the net but Marlon Harewood's strike was disallowed for offside and we were hanging on by a thread by this point.
But we composed ourselves and started to instigate something of a fightback just after the disallowed goal. Rochemback nearly opened his Boro scoring account after a well worked move with Massimo that saw Shaka Hislop forced into making a good save.
Maccarone's sheer workrate led to another opening shortly afterwards and Boro were by now starting to get a grip on the game and were at least looking equal to the task after almost falling behind on several occasions.
FIRST HALF FAN REACTION
"It's going to take some half-time team talk to sort this out..!"
Sherrers
THE SECOND HALF
Boro were unchanged going into the second half and carried on wear they had left off at the end of the first-half in terms of trying to forge out a route to goal.
Boro probed and prodded at The Hammers' defence but it was the Londoners who had the best chance of the opening ten minutes of the half.
Etherington and Konchesky working well to provide Bobby Zamora with an opportunity but Zamora's shooting was well off target today. He still had time on his side though.
On fifty-eight minutes, Massimo was replaced by Thursday night's scorer Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink.
Three minutes later the focus was on defence as star central midfielder French Franck cleared off the line from a Harewood strike.
Another chance went begging a minute later as Zamora shot wide and he was immediately withdrawn to make way for Teddy Sheringham.
Teddy likes scoring against the Boro and he needed less than a minute to do it today as he collected a through-ball straight from the restart and coolly placed the ball home with his very first touch of the match.
WEST HAM 1 (Sheringham 65 mins) MIDDLESBROUGH 0
Boro went in search of the equaliser straight away and created some good passing movements that may lead to something with a little better finishing.
But West Ham had the luck today as an interception led to Boro falling further behind in the most controversial circumstances.
Sheringham and Harewood were both involed in the move that led to Konchesky rushing in on Shwarzer who did well to collect. As he gathered the ball and pulled it out of the reach of the striker, the linesman signalled that it had crossed the line.
Video replays clearly show that it had done no such thing but Boro now had a mountain to climb.
WEST HAM 2 (Linesman 74 mins) MIDDLESBROUGH 0
George Boateng was booked for his protest at the linesman's decision and he was right to feel aggrieved.
On came the V-Bomber in place of Doriva and Boro switched to 4-3-3. It was the last throw of the dice and we needed something very special now.
INTO THE RED ZONE
It was The Hammers who looked the more likely to pull something out of the hat going into the final ten but they didn't really threaten.
But Boro hadn't given up yet and on eighty-seven minutes, we won a corner. Rochemback took it and found French Franck in the box who duly converted and set us up for an unlikely draw.
WEST HAM 2 MIDDLESBROUGH 1 (Queudrue 87 mins)
Four minutes were added on and it was down to Boro to scrape something form the game now. The Boss stood on the touchline and urged the team forward.
The Hammers brought on an extra defender and attempted to crowd out Mark Viduka as Boro searched for just one more opportunity.
And it might have been deep into injury time as Boro flew at The Hammers in a relentless surge forward that ultimately came to nothing.
The final whistle duly arrived and saw Boro been beaten by a team who had played much better football. It was a terrible mistake by the linesman that led to The Hammer's second goal but it was not be held totally to blame for the defeat.
Another Sunday after Europe, another defeat. Inconsistency is overshadowing the positives.
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