A Shameless Rant

In a break from tradition, this preview will take the form of a brief one man protest. A protest against banality, against a shuddering lack of adventure, against the absence of even the faintest prospect of incisive football.

One of the many things I have learnt from HeadHammer Shark (along with how to conceal 15 muffins about your person at any given moment), is the saying:

"All it takes for Evil to triumph, is for good men to do nothing."

Replace "good" with "pitiful" and you have a fair assessment of Saturday's game.

Why should I be expected to pay £50 to watch 20 minutes of inept embarrassment followed by 70 minutes of clueless, half-hearted meandering?

I was not expecting us to win, but I was equally not expecting us to capitulate so disasterously, resembling such a bunch of clueless amateurs.

How can we allow the left-back of a team consisting of 10-men to score against us on the break?

Just where do certain players get off continually asking the fans to get behind them? Get behind what exactly? Yet another hopeless, 20 yard, easily defended, floated pass from a full-back towards the edge of the area?

Give us something, anything worth our support and you'll get it.

If Alan Curbishley says one more time how we are ravaged with injuries, at how amazingly well this group of players have done and, most infuriatingly, how "people forget that" - I swear I'm gonna swing for him.

Shut Up, Alan.

I would hate for us all to be thought of as unrealistic, as a southern version of Newcastle United with delusions of grandeur and all too short memories, but I don't think any of us are making outrageous demands.

I would happily, willingly sacrifice two or three league positions if it just meant we would have a go for the remainder of the season. If this tiresome brand of football is what it takes to soldify a top half place, I don't want one.

But therein lies the rub.

Our current brand of football is patently not good enough to get us any further than where we are at the moment. We lack the attacking adventure of any of those above us, the necessary offensive risk-taking built upon the solid defensive base we have forged this year.

It seems obvious that with such an improved defensive record, we can afford to throw caution to the wind in attack a little more than usual (pre-Curbishley usual).

Instead, Curbs seems to have opted for the strategy of not doing anything whatsoever to jeopardise our 'goals against' stats (two strikers? Forget it) and bank on perhaps, maybe, if things go our way, nicking a goal at the other end.

At the moment, there is not one remaining home fixture I can see us winning, or perhaps even scoring in - discounting Derby County, and that's only an outside chance.

I know that you were anticipating a preview of our trip to Liverpool, but I just can not bring myself to talk-up our chances on the back of Saturday's no-show. Frankly, they don't deserve my time.

I know that many of us have invested a lot in West Ham United this season and in a variety of ways, not least financially.

Currently, it feels as if our dividend is a big, fat zero.