Great club, great fans.

[sten]

Well said that man. Always had a soft spot for the Hammers, been a few times starting in '67 when you had the great Bobbly Moore, Hurst, Peters and ginger Harry. Did a bit of work for a Hammer who had a Hardware store in Plaistow. Great bloke. Good to see your team make a good start this season. Long may it last. Love the Blind Man Blunkett story!

Edited October 21, 2012 by sten

[Freshfish]

Cheers MrWestHam...as said by a few...always had an affinity with the irons...way back in the early 70's, 1975 Alan Taylor and the 'pin-up' team, FA Cup triumph playing lovely football...I played a West Ham fan on stage in London and so had to do some research into the club and they became part of the 'Saturday results' routine.

Then of course there is the genius that was/is Di Canio...

Thank you for the the positive comments.

Hope the results keep coming for you.

[i used to be sc_owl]

Really generous replies. Thanks one and all.

Unfortunately (for you) my daughter won't be changing clubs anytime soon. It's not a choice in our family and we're all brought up under the assumption that you don't get to choose who you support and by the time we work it out it's all too late! It's a decent club though and much like yourselves we know that the premier league trophy is unlikely to land in the cupboard but we're very likely to see some superb youngsters along the way and some decent football. As horrific as Allardyce's football was last season, this season it's not that bad at all. We've played some good stuff (and been direct too) but are no longer the soft touch we used to be.

Here's my embarrassing story from watching the FA Cup game at your place last year.

A friend of a friend is mates with your Chief Exec, so we were watching the game in the posh seats. I'm relatively old school so if I find myself in with the opposition fans I'll be respectful but my daughter wasn't able to contain her support on occasion and it became quite apparent that we were West Ham fans. No-one cared, or so it seemed. But there was this one bloke sitting directly behind me that really seemed to have it in for West Ham. He was complaining about each decision in a fairly long winded way and it was also a few seconds after the event for some reason. He was quite articulate and it was like he was talking to me. I didn't mind at first, I know some people don't like sitting near away fans so I could empathise a bit. But after a while he was really boring me and came out with 'it'll be great to send a side like this home with their tail between their legs' - hardly offensive but it was an aggregation thing and I thought he could have been a bit more gracious in front of a nine year old. So I turned round to give him the old laser beam stare only to realise it was bloody David Blunket. His comments were delayed because he'd been getting his information through an ear piece and was clearly completely oblivious to us sitting there. To make matters worse, his guide felt the need to apologise to me. This then meant he had to explain to David what had happened who was then embarrassed himself and felt the need to explain and also apologise. I couldn't accept his apology enough while absolutely dying inside and my daughter looking at me really confused. To compound it - Howard Wilkinson was sitting in front and found the whole thing very funny but then wanted to chat about our young players on show for the remainder of the game. Despite being a long time season ticket holder, I couldn't tell you jack about our reserves and youth team - HW clearly thought I must be a West Ham anorak if I'd travel to Sheffield to watch West Ham reserves in the 4th round. The two players I told him I thought were ok (which was entirely based on what I'd seen in the last 75 minutes) were released from their contracts at the end of the season and are now without clubs.

We got a little tour of the ground afterwards and got to have a wander on the pitch which was nice. I like to think of the big old ground as one of England's historic grounds but it's hard to disassociate it with the obvious sometimes. It's a good think that now when someone mentions Hillsbrough stadium my first memory these days is of trying to give a blind man a dirty look.

Brilliant stuff!

Glad you and your daughter enjoyed your visit to Hillsborough.

Like others have said, be good to see you post on here again. Got quite a few non-SWFC fans posting on here and it does make it more interesting.

[Mike Hunt]

Really generous replies. Thanks one and all.

Unfortunately (for you) my daughter won't be changing clubs anytime soon. It's not a choice in our family and we're all brought up under the assumption that you don't get to choose who you support and by the time we work it out it's all too late! It's a decent club though and much like yourselves we know that the premier league trophy is unlikely to land in the cupboard but we're very likely to see some superb youngsters along the way and some decent football. As horrific as Allardyce's football was last season, this season it's not that bad at all. We've played some good stuff (and been direct too) but are no longer the soft touch we used to be.

Here's my embarrassing story from watching the FA Cup game at your place last year.

A friend of a friend is mates with your Chief Exec, so we were watching the game in the posh seats. I'm relatively old school so if I find myself in with the opposition fans I'll be respectful but my daughter wasn't able to contain her support on occasion and it became quite apparent that we were West Ham fans. No-one cared, or so it seemed. But there was this one bloke sitting directly behind me that really seemed to have it in for West Ham. He was complaining about each decision in a fairly long winded way and it was also a few seconds after the event for some reason. He was quite articulate and it was like he was talking to me. I didn't mind at first, I know some people don't like sitting near away fans so I could empathise a bit. But after a while he was really boring me and came out with 'it'll be great to send a side like this home with their tail between their legs' - hardly offensive but it was an aggregation thing and I thought he could have been a bit more gracious in front of a nine year old. So I turned round to give him the old laser beam stare only to realise it was bloody David Blunket. His comments were delayed because he'd been getting his information through an ear piece and was clearly completely oblivious to us sitting there. To make matters worse, his guide felt the need to apologise to me. This then meant he had to explain to David what had happened who was then embarrassed himself and felt the need to explain and also apologise. I couldn't accept his apology enough while absolutely dying inside and my daughter looking at me really confused. To compound it - Howard Wilkinson was sitting in front and found the whole thing very funny but then wanted to chat about our young players on show for the remainder of the game. Despite being a long time season ticket holder, I couldn't tell you jack about our reserves and youth team - HW clearly thought I must be a West Ham anorak if I'd travel to Sheffield to watch West Ham reserves in the 4th round. The two players I told him I thought were ok (which was entirely based on what I'd seen in the last 75 minutes) were released from their contracts at the end of the season and are now without clubs.

We got a little tour of the ground afterwards and got to have a wander on the pitch which was nice. I like to think of the big old ground as one of England's historic grounds but it's hard to disassociate it with the obvious sometimes. It's a good think that now when someone mentions Hillsbrough stadium my first memory these days is of trying to give a blind man a dirty look.

Quality story .

Mr West Ham ............. Which one are you Gold or Sullivan ?

[Guest PrincessWendy]

You are a gent, sir , and no error!

Bless you

HRH Wendy